


Avatar: The Legend of Neil

by wematch



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Avatar Neil Josten, Avatar State, Bending (Avatar), Fighting, Injured Andrew Minyard, Injured Neil Josten, Kissing, M/M, Making Out, Slow Burn, Temporary Character Death, atla!AU, canon compliant death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2020-12-16 10:22:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 35,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21034697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wematch/pseuds/wematch
Summary: For many years, the four nations lived together in harmony.Then, everything changed when a conspiracy to start a war began.Only the avatar, master of all four elements, could stop it, but when the identity of the new avatar was found, he vanished.Many years passed without anyone knowing where he was. Then he appeared on a farm in the Earth Kingdom, disguised as a firebender named Neil. And although his bending skills were weak when he got there, with practice he grew stronger every day that passed.Now with a war looming by, Neil must find his own path into becoming the new avatar and bring balance to the world.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I remember watching atla in nickelodeon way back in the day and I still love it. So one day, when I saw art about Neil being the avatar my mind went crazy thinking about that world and how these characters would fit there... I originally planned on writing a one shot about it, but when I started to write I just kept going.
> 
> For those of you who still remember watching atla, I tried to make the same structure of the series. Each “book“ here will represent a part of Neil’s journey to master a new element. As far as the other elements go I took some creative liberties here and there, hope it’s okay! Enjoy!
> 
> A huge thank you to @jsteneil for going over the first two chapters and for @tntwme for taking over and being an amazing beta! Your feedback made all the difference <3
> 
> This fic was inspired by this amazing piece of art by @aymmidumps, go check it out! [[here]](https://aymmidumps.tumblr.com/post/179536864227/i-finished-my-atla-rewatch-and-ofc-my-mind-went)

##  **Book 1: Air**

###  Chapter 1: The Beginning

When the new cycle of the avatar begins, Nathaniel is born into the Wesninski family. His mother belongs to an ancient fire nation family, and his father is a powerful and ruthless firebender that has built his reputation working for the Moriyamas, helping taking care of unwanted resistance against their plans.

The Moriyama family is an old and very wealthy family that has gained their power through war many generations ago. They control most of the transactions with the other nations and any business in the city outside the law is also connected to them. Ichirou, head of the Moriyama family, is always looking for ways to expand their territory to have more power, so Nathaniel grows up hearing whispers of conversations in his house of their plans to make it happen. The problem is that the current council and the Firelord were wary of the idea of expanding their territories into the other nations. They didn’t wish to start a war when the fire nation is prospering like never before.

However, it doesn't take Ichirou long to realize that that isn’t reason enough to stop his plan. Nathaniel is shocked when he listens through the wall about what plan they want to put into motion: if the council and the Firelord don’t want to take part in this change in history then they would have to be taken down.

To make something like this work required careful planning and discretion so Nathaniel keeps seeing more people come and go to their house. He can feel everyone on edge, too afraid of the repercussions if their plan fails. And if the plan was to succeed, they couldn't be linked to it.That could cause the fire nation to be divided between not wanting to go to war for those who had just killed their Firelord and the ones who supported the idea. And a civil war was not the purpose of it. Ichirou needed the full support of the fire nation to bring his plan to life. And he needed someone they could manipulate as Firelord so that they could then use the full army to conquer the other nations. 

Time continues to pass and even though there’s no big developments on how to achieve this plan, regular meetings keep happening. One winter night a reunion is held at the Wesninskis’ house that has the presence of most of the advisors of Ichirou, and that caughts Nathaniel’s attention. So once the reunion starts he goes to the stairs to listen in. The advisors don’t waste time and are quick to explain their newest idea to form the Ravens, an elite team of skilled firebenders trained to serve them as private, disposable soldiers that could execute the plan when the time came. Tetsuji, Ichirou’s uncle, will run the academy. Training young firebenders owned by them under the disguise of being a private restricted school.

Before the reunion is over his father walks out of the room and Nathaniel is caught listening in. He has never seen him more furious. Nathan has a murderous expression on his face as he drags Nathaniel down the stairs spitting insults and threats for him to never embarrass him ever again. Nathan throws him against the wall and attacks him. It all happens so fast that Nathaniel only has the time to put his arm up to shield his face when the fire hits him.

***

Months pass, and Nathaniel knows that the Moriyama family is growing impatient because of the lack of results. And he knows that that didn’t bode well for either him or his mother: his father frustrations were often released on them. At least it meant that they hadn’t come up with a way to dethrone the current Firelord without causing complete chaos over their nation.

However, everything changes when Nathaniel arrives home from school one day and the fire sages are waiting for him. They declare him to be the next avatar and shock runs through him. Nathaniel doesn’t know how to process what he has just heard so he looks around the living room. He can see that his mother is trying to disguise it but he knows what that look means: she’s terrified of what this could mean. His father, though—his father is smiling coldly at him, showing all his teeth, and that’s what really scares Nathaniel too.

When the Fire sages leave, Nathan takes him into the Moriyamas’ academy and goes to talk to Tetsuji while Nathaniel waits outside the door. Nathaniel looks around and notices a boy with dark hair train firebending on the field to his side. The boy must be his around his age and seems to be practicing advanced movements. Nathaniel moves to the side to be able to watch him more closely and as he moves he begins to hear his father’s voice in the background. He scans the building and notices a window on the far corner and continues to walk towards it. He doesn’t take more than two steps when his father’s voice begins to rise and Nathaniel starts to understand what he’s hearing and realizes that it’s not anger that’s making his father raise his voice, quite the contrary. 

“If it’s the avatar conquering in his name, what do you think the firelord will do? Refuse the new territories?” Nathan throws in the air. And Nathaniel feels like an ice bucket of water has been thrown at him. They want him to start a war?

“No, he will not,” Tetsuji agrees. Nathaniel cannot believe what he’s hearing. He looks around feeling panic rise in him and that’s when he notices another boy getting closer to him with a cold expression on his face.

“A new era will soon start, Admiral.” Tetsuji continues. Nathaniel steps away from the window in direction to the boy. “Ichirou will be very pleased to hear this. You must go now. I will call and emergency meeting to tell him about it.”

The boy steps closer, and looks down at him.“ Are you coming to study here too? I’m the best student they have here.”

Nathaniel looks up and instantly dislikes the look of arrogance the boy has. “I’m not sure,” he answers.

“I’m Riko, and you are?”

A door opens and they both look to the side. His father exists and keeps walking. “Lets go, Nathaniel.” Nathaniel is quick to jog to catch him. And when he’s about the exit the property gates he glances at the building once again and sees Riko still watching him. And Nathaniel hopes he never sees him again.

On the same day that Nathaniel finds out that he’s the new avatar, Mary takes him away and they vanish.

***

Nathan is quick to send his most trusted soldiers to find them and bring them back. Through the years Mary and Nathaniel have had a few close calls but always manage to escape them. But Lola and her team are persistent and eventually one morning comes when they’re finally caught.

That morning, Nathaniel is walking back from the lake when he hears an explosion. His mother had still been asleep when he left not too long ago. Fear and panic settle in and he starts to run toward the house they have been staying in.

He starts to see the flames and the smoke rising to the sky. As he gets closer, he sees Lola’s team circling the house, and freezes. From where he is he can see Lola’s cold grin. “He must be close, search the woods,” she shouts to the others. 

Nathaniel starts to feel his control slip away as rage overpowers him. They’ve found them, and he quickly realizes that her gloating means only one thing: his mother is inside the burning house. 

In a moment his control is gone. Nathaniel feels power run through him like never before. All of a sudden he’s getting higher into the air, moving fast towards Lola and the others. The earth shatters to his will and boulders begin to rise, then he throws them to where they are staying. Lola and the others start to run to find cover and try to block his attacks and that's when they see him flying towards them. Nathaniel can see the hesitation in their eyes when they realize what is happening, but they don’t run. They start to fight, shooting blasts of fire at him but Nathaniel can easily predict their movements and easily block their attacks as well, using all the elements. And one by one Nathaniel knocks them out unconscious. Lola is the last one still standing but even she can't fight him like this and soon he sends her towards the wall of the burning house, knocking her out too. 

Nathaniel regains control over his body and drops to his knees, feeling weak. He looks at all the destruction around him in shock. Uprooted trees are thrown around and the house is still burning, creating a big dark cloud above his head. The smoke in the air is making it difficult to breathe, and three unconscious bodies are scattered around the area.

And his mother is gone.

Nathaniel tries to calm down. He clenches his fists and bites his lip until he can taste the blood. For a moment he just stares at Lola’s unconscious body in front of him, wishing that he had killed her. Wishing he was strong enough to get up now and do it. He knows he’s just entered the avatar state, but it wasn’t on purpose, and he had no control of what he was doing at that moment. 

He hates that he was the new avatar now more than ever before. He didn’t ask for it. He can’t even control it. That power inside of him just got his mother killed. And now he is all alone.

Nathaniel begins to cough and slowly gets up. He spares a moment to look at the unforgiving fire burning down the house and turns around. His mother is gone. There's nothing he can do for her now. He runs back towards the lake. Tears start rolling down his face but he pays them no attention. He needs to get as far away from this place as he can. Lola and her team will wake up soon enough and he needs to put as much distance between them before that.

Nathaniel begins to run, on his mind the constant reminder of what his mother kept telling him when they managed to dodge his father’s men: never stop running.

So he runs, and runs, until he finally approaches the nearest village. There he looks for an ostrich horse to steal. Once he finds one tied near a fence with no one around, he jumps on his back and pushes it to run as fast as it can through the night. Tears keep falling down but he keeps going. Because stopping means he is going to get captured and delivered to his father. It means he is going to be punished for running away, and be sent to train as a Raven. It means he would be forced to start a war. And he would rather die too than let that happen.


	2. Chapter 2

##  **Book 1: Air**

### Chapter 2: The Farm

For over a year, Nathaniel travels farther into the depths of the Earth kingdom. He doesn’t know exactly where he is; all he knows is that he’s slowly getting closer to Ba Sing Se and the closer he gets the busier the villages become, making it easier for him to blend in.

He travels from village to village, helping out in farms in exchange for some food and a few coins. Once his work is finished on a farm he collects his payment and resumes his journey. This time he travels for almost three days before he can see another village on the horizon. When he gets closer he makes camp in a place away from sight that still allows him to observe people coming and going into the village, just like his mother had taught him.

Afternoon comes and not seeing any immediate trouble with the guards or the people passing by, Nathaniel decides to go venture into the village. He can see people dressed in all the different nations colors. They’re merely talking to each other, laughing, buying groceries or discussing their lives—and he can’t help but remember that his father wants to destroy this, the peace between the nations.

Nathaniel keeps walking but whenever someone passes by him he tenses. Anyone from the fire nation could be working for his father; anyone could be disguised as a citizen of the earth kingdom and recognize him. Nathaniel takes a deep breath. He hasn’t seen Lola or anyone for over a year but he knows that they’re somewhere out there trying to find him. He keeps walking with his head down; busier streets means he will draw less attention and he’s dressed in earth kingdom clothes, he can easily blend in. And after finding a job he can keep away from prying eyes if he just stays near the farm.

Nathaniel buys food from a merchant and once he finishes, he asks a man selling cabbages on the street about any farms nearby accepting help. After being given directions to one farm in particular, Nathaniel goes back to where he left his ostrich horse and decides to rest and go to the farm on the following day.

That night as he watches the stars above him, he thinks about what identity he will use this time. In every new village he uses a different one. Eventually he decides on the name of Neil: it’s a common name and close enough to his own.

***

The next morning, when the sun is starting to rise, Neil walks towards the farm. As he gets closer he begins to see people passing with baskets to collect food and he stops near the barn where a tall older man is giving directions and baskets to two girls, who turn to leave. The taller one flips her hair over her shoulder and looks at him for a moment, leaning to whisper something to the other girl as they continue to walk towards the fields. Neil tenses slightly but continues to walk, noticing that the man has a blue tattoo of an arrow running all over his arms and forehead. Even though they’re at peace it’s still strange to see an Air nomad living outside the temples. After a moment the man turns to his direction and arches an eyebrow.

“You’re an Air nomad,” Neil says, feeling stupid for saying out loud such an obvious thing.

“Aren’t you smart, kid,” the man replies.

“Uhm… I came to ask if you still need an extra pair of hands for your harvest?” He pauses and decides to add, “I’ve worked in other farms before.”

The man takes a long look at him, then he turns to look up to the sky. Neil follows his gaze and sees a small dot in the sky, becoming bigger and bigger by the second. The airbender begins to walk to the middle of the field and starts speaking loudly for Neil to hear, who begins to follow but stops when he notices that the dot he was seeing on the sky is a bison. The animal circles above them and lands at Wymack’s side. Neil is in awe, he’s never seen a bison this close before. Wymack jumps and lifts himself in the air to gracefully land at the animal’s head. 

“Listen kid, I need to go. But my conditions are simple: you work from sunrise until afternoon, food is given to those who work here and at the end of the harvest, I’ll give you a few coins for your work.”

“Okay, that sounds good.” Neil answers, still looking at the massive creature in front of him.

The man eyes him for a second longer before he speaks,“In that case, welcome to my farm. You can call me Wymack, and this is Blue,” he says, petting the bison. “What’s your name?” he asks.

“Neil,” he answers, thinking that other questions will follow. When that doesn’t happen he adds, “where do you want me to start?”

“See those people near the apple trees?” After Neil nods he continues, “ask for Dan, tell her you’re going to help around here, she’ll give you work.” Wymack turns his attention to the sky and shouts “yip-yip,” and the bison takes off. Neil watches them disappear in the sky for a moment and then begins to walk towards the trees.

As he walks, he sees a few people already working at various points, but he stops short when he gets close enough to the trees to see the group working there. A tall guy with darker skin dressed in Water tribe colors is laughing as two Fire nation girls race to climb a tree. Then, the guy bends the water on the buckets nearby to make a slide from the tree to where their pile of baskets are.

Apples start sliding down and the guy and another girl start grabbing them and filling the baskets. Neil stares for a moment longer and then walks in their direction. As he gets closer he notices that the two are talking in hushed tones, but then the girl seems to notice him and stops talking.

“Hey, you came to work?” the girl, also dressed in tones of blue, asks.

“Yeah” Neil starts, staring at the slider again, “I’m looking for Dan.”

“Well, you found me,” Dan points to her side with an apple.”This is Matt,” and Matt gives him a quick wave. 

“Welcome to the farm. What’s your name?” Matt asks.

“Thanks, I’m Neil.”

Dan gets up. “Well, Neil, come with me,” she tells him and leads him towards a strawberry field. “You ever picked strawberries?” Neil nods. Dan grabs a basket nearby and passes it to him. “Alright, if you need anything, I’ll be harvesting the apples. We’ll call you when break time for lunch arrives.”

“Okay,” Neil answers and starts on his task. He can feel Dan watching him but he pays it no attention and after a while she seems satisfied with what he’s doing and gets back to her own work.

There’s only one other person working on the strawberry line, but he’s not close enough for Neil to see much besides his blond hair. Despite the uncomfortable job, time flies and when he gets up to grab another basket he sees the guy eating a few strawberries; he’s also wearing Earth Nation colors. As if sensing Neil, the guy looks up to meet his eyes, and then proceeds to eat another strawberry. Neil looks away, grabs the basket and walks back to his previous spot with his stomach growling, hoping that lunch won’t take long because he hasn’t eaten since yesterday. And he’s not sure what rules are in place here but in other farms he could be punished for eating what he was supposed to be harvesting.

The sun is almost right on top of him when Matt calls him to lunch. Tired and hungry from work, Neil follows him back to the farm. 

Everyone begins to sit down under a tree around the food. Matt motions for him to sit next to him so Neil does. A tall young man with dark skin, sitting next to the blond one that is working closest to him, passes him a bowl of soup. Neil learns that his name is Nicky and besides him is sitting his cousin Aaron. He’s greeted by the girls that had been climbing the trees called Renee and Allison, both from the Fire nation. And that’s when another blond man sits right in front of him. 

Confusion settles for a moment. Neil glances at his side at Aaron. At first he sees no difference between the two, besides the armbands with the Earth nation insignia that the one in front of him is wearing. Which makes him the one working next to Neil, and not Aaron. The thought that now he isn’t sure which one could be working near him troubles Neil. Clothes can be easily changed and the twins could easily switch places without anyone noticing.

Through lunch Neil watches their interactions, his attention always coming back to the man sitting in front of him who has yet to say a word. When they’re nearly finished with lunch, they see the bison approaching the farm and moments later Wymack comes to meet them, followed by an older woman. 

“Kevin will be coming back at the end of next week,” he informs them. Then as he starts to turn he adds pointing at Neil, “Oh, and Abby, this is Neil. He just started today.”

“Nice to meet you, Neil,” Abby says with an easy smile. She then turns to follow Wymack into the house.

“She’s a healer from the North pole,” Dan explains to Neil when Abby is out of sight.

Neil looks up at Dan, curious. “You’re from the same tribe?”

She shakes her head. “No, but I had heard rumors about a healer from the North living in this village, so I came here for her to teach me.”

Matt puts his arm around her. “And I came with her, of course.” They smile at each other fondly and Neil looks away. 

He had always envied waterbenders for their ability to heal, instead of just destroying everything around them like firebenders. It would have been very helpful to know how to heal himself as he was growing up. “You don’t have waterbenders in your tribe?”

“We do, but only a few and none knew how to heal. Our tribe is small when compared to the North, so most male waterbenders tend to go to our sister tribe to train, and then most of them never come back.”

“Just the males?”

“In the North there’s a silly tradition, that women can only learn how to be healers, so the women can't go there to train.” Matt explains. “It’s really stupid.” 

Dan gives him a tentative smile. “Luckily in our tribe we don’t have a lot of waterbenders so they train everyone the same. But healing is not that common. I’ve discovered it by accident actually. And then I decided I wanted to learn it too.”

“And that is why we’re here.” Matt adds. “What about you, Neil?”

“I’m just here for the job,” Neil answers. 

They continue eating for a few quiet moments until Allison speaks, “I bet Kevin’s going to arrive before practice starts.”

Matt grins and makes a dismissive gesture with his hand. “We’re talking about Kevin, of course he is.” 

Neil wonders who Kevin is and what kind of practice they’re talking about. But he doesn’t want the others to pay too much attention to him, so he doesn’t ask anything.

“Oh! Oh!” Nicky suddenly yells at his side, making Neil jump. “Andrew, can we go to the village this Friday? I’ve been wanting to send a falcon to Erik.”

“Fine,” Andrew, the man sitting across from Neil, answers, looking bored at his cousin. And then, as if sensing Neil he stares right back. Neil holds his gaze for a moment and then looks at Andrew’s twin when he speaks.

“Didn’t you send him one a few days ago?” Aaron asks.

“So?”

“Shouldn’t you wait for him to respond?”

Nicky looks down defeated. “You think?”

“Don’t listen to him, Nicky.” Renee tells him, “I think it’s sweet that you want to write him often.”

Renee and Nicky smile at each other, and as the others begin to talk, Neil finds himself studying Andrew. He takes a mental note of the differences he can point between Andrew and Aaron from watching them at lunch. He’s surprised that he can see very clear differences, from the way they interact with others to the way they carry themselves. That, and the armbands, will do to distinguish them for now.

He stores that piece of knowledge away, grabs a piece of bread and listens to the others speak about practice after work. They’re making bets on who can win matches or best the others at throwing knives. Matt and Allison try to make him talk about why he’s here and where he came from and Neil gives them short answers and a made-up story about his past. Andrew stares at him very intently when he speaks, but thankfully he doesn’t ask him any more questions and the others seem to quickly understand that he doesn’t wish to talk about himself and leave him alone. And not too long later, Wymack tells them to get back to work and Neil resumes his position collecting strawberries.

Andrew is still working close to him that afternoon so Neil decides to pay him a little more attention. Through the afternoon he occasionally glances in his direction but he only sees him working focused on his task, and not once he catches him eating strawberries again.

When his first day of work finally ends he quietly eats with the rest of the workers and starts to walk back towards the cave where he left his things hidden. He lays down to rest his back but he can’t help but be curious about everyone talking about practicing together. Matt had asked him if he wanted to join them but Neil had refused. He can’t get too close to these people. But he’s curious about what they’re doing and after a moment of hesitation he gets up to try and find the others. It will be a good opportunity to know the area surrounding the farm and make an exit route in case he needs to get out of here quickly.

It doesn’t take him long to find them because of all the noise they’re making. He can hear them shouting at one another way before he can see them. 

He moves slowly closer to them until he can distinguish them. Neil hides behind the vegetation and watches them.

Dan pulls water from the river nearby and creates a whip of water to stop the deadly knives Allison is throwing at her. Everyone else is sitting down under a tree, some even cheering and shouting instructions at the girls. Neil turns away not long after Matt gets up to switch places with Allison, and begins to walk back to his camp.

It was a mistake coming to see them. He knows he should stay away from bending; his mother had forbidden him to use his bending the moment they ran away, too afraid of the attention that could bring. But just watching them practicing together makes him miss it so much that it almost hurts. 

Days pass, and every afternoon Neil finds himself following them into the clearing they practice. And every night he tells himself that it will be the last time he follows them. He hates himself afterwards for not being strong enough to stop and hates himself even more for not having the courage to go join them.


	3. Chapter 3

##  **Book 1: Air**

###  Chapter 3: Practice

Neil is working on the strawberry line and when his basket is full he gets up and stretches before going to grab another basket. Out of the corner of his eye he notices Andrew eating strawberries again. “You’re going to end up getting caught,” Neil points out.

“Not your concern,” Andrew replies, only glancing at him for a moment before returning his attention back to his work. Neil turns his back to Andrew to walk towards the pile of baskets. He’s not sure what to think about Andrew yet, but he’s as intriguing as he is frustrating to talk to. 

Not too long later, Andrew walks in his direction and stops at his side. “Has it ever occurred to you that no one told us we couldn’t eat the fruit?”

Neil tries to remember what Wymack had told him on his first day but they only had a very brief chat before he flew away. Still that doesn’t mean he can do it. “No, but he didn’t say I could do it either.”

Andrew studies him for a moment and without saying a thing he turns to leave. Then with his back turned to Neil he says, “Ask him.” After a moment he adds, “Now come, it's lunch time.”

Neil doesn’t know what to make of that. Is Andrew serious or just trying to get him into trouble? He pushes that thought aside and gets up, stretching his legs in the process. It's not like he's starving, Wymack gives them enough food. Maybe he could ask Matt about it. For now, he just follows Andrew.

Neil sits down between Allison and Nicky and grabs a sandwich. He stays quiet while he listens to the conversations around him. He has learned a lot about the others just from listening to their chats from the last couple of days, all except for Andrew who barely speaks a word to anyone.

“I've been meaning to ask you Neil, where have you been staying?” Allison asks him when they're almost done eating.

“I made camp nearby.” 

“We're all staying on the property, you're welcome to move here too, you know?” Dan tells him. Neil didn’t know, Wymack didn’t tell him anything, it seems. At seeing Neil pause at the information Dan huffs, “Wymack should have told you, I’m going to have a word with him.”

“It’s fine Dan, thanks.” 

“Trust me, you’re going to want to stay here,” Nicky turns to his side and continues, “Andrew created us some pretty neat cabins to sleep in.” 

“I’ll think about it,” Neil replies. He glances at Andrew, intrigued, wondering if he’s also a builder around the farm. So far he hasn’t seen him doing anything else besides harvesting and eating the strawberries that he’s supposed to be collecting.

“Oh come on Neil, you have to at least come and see it. It’s near the fence on that side,” Nicky says and points to their left.

“Okay, I’ll check it out,” Neil answers, curiosity taking over.

“Great! You can come with us after work and we’ll show you.”

Later that day, Neil follows them to see what Andrew had created. Between some old trees that hide the farm from the lake there’s half a dozen cabins made of stone, exactly the same size and shape, each with a small window. Neil is surprised by their size, they’re not huge by any means but inside each could fit a few people comfortably. Neil quickly realizes that Andrew has to be an earthbender. Neil hasn’t seen him use his bending once though, but there’s no other way for him to have built something like this.

“What do you think? Pretty cool, huh?” Nicky tells him while he enters one of the cabins. “You can come inside if you want,” he speaks louder from the inside.

“That’s alright, I should head back to my camp anyway, I have an ostrich horse that needs to walk for a while,” Neil answers him and turns around. He can feel Andrew studying him but he doesn’t meet his eyes when he passes by him and Renee talking in hushed tones. He’s tired and he just wants to head back and rest for a little while.

***

As usual, when night comes he goes to watch the others at the clearing where they practice. There are some nights when Wymack joins them. He gives them exercises to improve their skills and their endurance, making everyone push their skills to the limit. And those are the nights that Neil enjoys watching the most, usually staying to watch until later.

He watches Dan and Matt practice their waterbending, the water shifting from one to the other like a dance. But it doesn’t take him long for his focus to shift solely to Andrew. Every night he’s sitting in the same spot while the others practice. Sometimes Renee sits with him but more often than not he remains alone while everyone else practices hitting targets or fighting each other. Watching the others bend their elements every day makes Neil miss bending like never before. And the more he watches, the more he just wants to get up and join them. And then there was Andrew, an earthbender that could use his bending whenever he wanted and instead he prefered not to. He couldn’t figure him out. It was maddening.

Practice continues for a while but then, in a split second everything changes. Out of nowhere, Wymack lifts himself into the air with airbending to dodge a whip of water coming his direction. He shouts a warning at Matt to be more careful and when he begins to descend the force of the wind moves all the plants nearby, making Neil visible for a moment. It only happens for a split second but it’s so fast that Neil doesn’t even have time to react and it’s enough time for Wymack to spot him from the air.

Practice continues for a little longer and Neil stays frozen where he is. It’s not right to be watching them, but it’s not as if they were being secretive about it. So he waits for Wymack to approach him. And sure enough, when everyone begins to leave Wymack starts walking in his direction with Matt following behind.

“Sorry, again for--” Matt starts, trying to apologize once again for almost hitting Wymack.

“You're welcome to join us you know,” Wymack interrupts, speaking to Neil when he’s still a few feet away.

Neil sees the confusion on Matt’s face, trying to figure out to whom Wymack is talking to. Matt moves closer until he also spots Neil sitting down between the vegetation. Matt looks surprised to see him but he’s quick to send him an encouraging smile.

Neil doesn't answer. He wants to join them but he can't. His mother would slap him for just thinking about it. Neil stares at him, conflicted on what he should say. But Wymack doesn't wait for his answer and turns to leave. “Your call kid,” he adds without looking back at Neil and sends an annoyed look at Matt that makes him mumble an apology once again.

Neil gets up and Matt walks closer to him. “You know, even if you never had any training we can teach you,” after a moment Matt adds, “at least come closer, you can sit near us.”

“I'll think about it,” Neil is quick to respond, but when he sees the defeated look on Matt's face he adds, “thanks, Matt.”

***

The next day, Neil walks into the clearing where everyone is already practicing. Matt gives him a big grin when he sees him walking in their direction and Allison is quick to challenge him into a throwing knives contest that he refuses. Not because he doesn’t know how to throw knives, he does. But because he needs to share as little as possible about himself. He needs to be forgettable so that when he leaves no one remembers a thing about him.

As practice progresses, he notices that Andrew is watching him. Neil stares back for a moment and then without really knowing why, he walks until he's at Andrew's side, stopping at a safe distance. “You never practice your bending with them,” Neil comments. 

He waits for an answer but after a few moments it's clear he's not getting one. Then when Neil is about to call it a mistake coming near him, Andrew speaks. “If you’re so interested why don’t you just go and join them?”

“I just like to watch them, that's all,” he replies.

“You sure?” Andrew pauses and turns towards Neil, focusing his entire attention on him. “Every night since you've been here you came to watch them practice. It seems more like an obsession,” he points out.

Neil is taken off guard, he doesn't know how Andrew knows this. He thought he had been careful up until last night. He’s not sure what he should feel at the moment, annoyed that Andrew had known where he was all along or impressed that even though every time Neil had come to watch practice he had seen both Aaron and Andrew in the clearing and still somehow Andrew had managed to figure him out. He stares back at Andrew for a moment longer and then he moves away without answering, choosing to sit down next to Dan for the rest of the night and avoid looking in Andrew’s direction.

***

Morning comes and when Neil is walking to the farm he notices someone sitting on a tall tree watching him. Immediately he thinks he’s about to get attacked but he continues to walk while he scans his surroundings for other people. He doesn’t see anyone else watching him though, but not taking any chances he decides to run away from his attacker before he gets too close. But when he’s a second away from turning around and running, he recognizes who is sitting up in the tree. 

Neil takes a deep breath and continues to walk. Silently cursing Allison for scaring him so early in the day. When he passes the tree she’s sitting on, he looks up and nods at her. He continues to walk not entirely sure as to why she’s up there, his guess is that she was trying to see where he came from. Allison drops to the ground a moment later and is quick to join his side. Together they begin to descend the small hill to the farm. They walk for a minute in silence until Neil decides to speak. “Were you spying on me?”

She huffs. “Merely wanting to know where you were staying.”

“I’m staying nearby,” Neil answers.

“Yes, I gathered that much. Thank you, mister secretive,” she rolls her eyes. “Come on, why don’t you stay near us?”

“I have an ostrich horse,” Neil points out.

“So? Wymack has a stable.”

Neil doesn’t answer. And it doesn’t take them too long after that to reach the farm. When they get close to the others Allison walks away from him. “Ugh, he’s impossible,” she complains to Dan as she sits down to eat. “It’s like talking to a brick wall.”

“Welcome to my life,” Nicky mutters. And a second later a grape is thrown at his head. He yelps and looks up at Andrew but wisely chooses not to say another word. 

Neil tries to hide his grin and sits down to eat with the others.

***

That night Neil walks towards the clearing debating whether or not he should go back to watch them after the conversation he had with Andrew the previous night. However, when he gets closer he freezes when he sees a figure bending fire. His brain screams at him that he needs to run, that he has been found. But a moment later it's clear that the firebender is not fighting with anyone, merely practicing some movements. Intrigued, Neil takes a deep breath and decides to take a closer look.

As he starts to walk closer to the others he can see that the firebender is a man and that his technique is impeccable. Neil watches him practice alone and then against a tall figure manipulating water that he assumes is Matt. He's transfixed, he can't take his eyes away from the fire dancing in front of him. Watching the others practice other elements was hard but seeing someone bend fire makes his fingers twitch in anticipation to do the same.

He hesitates for a moment, his mother had forbid him to use his bending, and it's been years since he's done it, but if he doesn't he's going to lose his mind. And besides, he's in the middle of nowhere on a farm with benders from all nations, no one will pay attention to another kid practicing firebending. He will be fine as long as he doesn't try to use any other type of bending. It's not as if he knows other bending types, on the run with his mother he was never allowed to try to find masters to teach him firebending much less the other elements.

He enters the clearing and walks towards where most of them are sitting watching the firebender. His heart begins to race a mile a minute at the prospect of bending again. However, when he gets close enough to the group and the person using firebending turns enough that he can see his face Neil freezes once again because he knows who the firebender in front of him is.

They hadn’t officially met, but Neil remembers watching him practice while he waited for his father the day he was announced to be the next avatar. The boy had been practicing in a facility that belonged to the Moriyama family. They didn't speak. Neil isn’t sure that he had noticed him at all on that day. But when his father was discussing his plans with Ichirou, Neil was watching him practice until Riko came to introduce himself. Riko made his skin crawl and if Neil had stayed, he would have been working there to become a Raven, a soldier for the Moryama family, just like the man firebending in front of him.

Neil begins to take a step back as panic begins to settle. He needs to leave. If a Raven is here that means he was probably found. And other Ravens must be close by. It didn't make any sense as to why he was here except if he was following orders. But why did the others all seem to know him? He could be infiltrated in this place but then how would he know that Neil would be here?

He can’t make sense as to what’s happening right now. He takes a deep breath and moves closer, he needs to figure out why a Raven is here and if he’s alone. As he walks he pays close attention to the Raven’s movements. He sees no recognition when he briefly glances at Neil, but he’s a Raven and therefore he cannot be trusted. He watches him practice his form, trying to figure out what kind of plan he has here. Neil is too lost in his mind that he only notices Wymack coming his direction when he's almost at his side.

“You alright kid?” After Neil gives him a short nod. Wymack follows his gaze to where Matt is still battling. A whip of fire is blocked by water filling the air with steam for a moment. “Finally decided to join us?”

Neil glances at the man, “I could use the practice.”

“Well, do you have any training in swords or knives?” 

Neil shakes his head without taking his eyes off the firebender. He does, but that's not what he wants to practice. The man in front of him throws a punch that shoots a massive fire towards them. Neil can feel the heat that the fire is producing where he is and the more he observes the more the urge to use his bending grows.

“Are you a bender?”

Neil tightens his jaw. His mother would not be pleased with him at this moment. But then again, she’s no longer alive to tell him how to survive. “Yes,” he pauses, “I’m a firebender.”

“Well, there’s no one better than Kevin to teach you.”

Kevin. “Does he also work here?”

“No. He started studying in Ba Sing Se a few months ago and he’s here to visit.” Neil is even more confused with this information. Then without wasting time, Wymack calls Kevin’s name and he walks towards them.

Neil tightens his jaw and prepares himself. If he’s here to catch him this will be the moment he attacks. However, they are introduced and he sees no recognition in Kevin's face. Neil pays close attention to his movements, he's either a very good liar or he truly doesn't recognize him.

“Neil would like to train firebending,” Wymack explains.

“Have you had any masters?” Kevin asks him. Still no indicator that he knows who he is.

“Not for a long time,” Neil answers truthfully.

Kevin looks at him strangely. “How bad are you?”

“I’m out of practice, but I was decent.” 

By the look on his face Kevin doesn't seem to believe him, “Well, maybe for now you can first practice basic forms without fire and then we’ll see how it goes.”

“Fine.”

Neil follows Kevin’s lead. He sees the others stopping what they’re doing to watch them, clearly surprised to discover that he’s also a bender. But two minutes later Neil stops. “Are you really showing me 5 year old standing positions? I thought you said we would start with forms.”

Kevin looks mildly annoyed by the interruption. “I need to determine how far behind you are, so we’re starting with the most basic. You said yourself that you were out of practice, so you need to let your body remember the basics before advancing.”

Neil thinks about rolling his eyes, he’s out of practice yes but he wasn’t thinking about doing the small children exercises you start with when you discover you’re a bender. Neil does roll his eyes when Kevin gives him a leaf and tells him to keep the flames from burning it as his next exercise. “Are you serious?” 

“Just do it,” Kevin orders, and turns his back to Neil to walk towards Matt.

Neil watches them practice, feeling annoyed. And not too long after, Andrew comes to stop at his side. Andrew throws a small rock at the leaf he’s holding. “Stop it,” Neil tells him and shifts his body to the side just in time for the rock to miss his hand.

“Or what.”

“Just stop it and let me practice.”

“You call that practice?” Andrew mocks him and starts to walk away.

“Piss off,” Neil says to Andrew and when he looks down his leaf is completely burnt, ashes falling to the floor. Frustrated, fire bursts out of his hands and he quickly stops it. It felt good to just let some fire out but that small outburst makes Kevin look his way. 

“Start again.” Kevin shouts at him.

Neil takes a deep breath, he thinks back to the breathing exercises he used to do when he was younger to get a hold of himself. Feeling annoyed, he grabs another leaf, burns the middle and starts again. And solely focuses on watching Kevin practice the rest of the day. He isn't sure what to think about being here with Kevin. He knows he can't trust him, he might still be working for Riko and his family. Still, everyone seems to know him and for now Neil figures that he can learn a lot from Kevin. 

After practice Neil begins to return to his small camp he has made for himself but when he’s close he gets the sensation he's been followed. He starts to walk more slowly but he can’t hear a sound. He frowns, he can’t see a thing but just to be sure he keeps walking and at the next tree he passes he hides around it. He stills and focuses on his hearing. He hears nothing until he catches movement in the corner of his eye and earth quickly closes around his feet. He can’t move, and he can’t see who his attacker is so his first instinct is to light a flame to see who attacked him.

Andrew stares at Neil with a blank face. He pointendly glances at the flame in the palm of his hand and then back to his face, “I don’t know why you’re here, but if you were sent to get Kevin that will not happen.”

“I’m not--”

“Think carefully about what you’re about to say,” Andrew interrupts him and when he sees Neil opening his mouth he warns him. “I can tell if you're lying.” 

Neil freezes. He knew he should have left the moment he saw Kevin. But he likes working on this farm, and the people working here, and he realizes that he doesn’t want to leave. He wants to stay and use his bending again. “I’m running from the fire nation too, I’m not here to get Kevin,” he tells him.

“You’re a firebender and you just stumbled upon our camp,” Andrew pauses, “how convenient that Kevin is also here and it's only now that you're showing you're a bender."

Neil feels himself getting frustrated and his flame begins to get bigger. He doesn't know how Kevin got here but he has bigger problems than him. “I’ve been running away for years,” he begins to explain, “I’m watching him because I haven’t had a master to teach me while I was on the run.”

Andrew seems to pause at that new information, then he says,“If you want to practice that desperately why don't you just do it?”

"I've practiced today."

"No, you haven’t. You could have been practicing with the others from day one. You could have been practicing with Kevin but instead you’re letting him treat you like you’re a child that doesn’t know anything."

Neil clenches his fists by his side. “I--” Neil starts, but he doesn't quite know what to say to Andrew. He can't explain that he's the new avatar and he's been on the run from his father ever since he found out about it. That his mother had forbidden him to use his bending but he misses it, he misses it so much that sometimes it feels like he's been holding his breath all these years. However, before Neil is able to form a response Andrew turns around and begins to walk away.

“If you want to practice, just do it,” he tells Neil and without looking back Andrew opens his hand, releasing Neil of the earth that had him stuck to the ground.

Neil takes a deep breath and stares at Andrew’s back until he can no longer see him. Then he proceeds to walk the rest of the way to the cave. That night sleep doesn’t come easily. Thoughts of his father and his men keep popping in his head. And he keeps thinking about what Andrew had said to him. He wants to train, he wants Kevin to teach him everything he knows so badly, and he wants to practice with the others just for the fun of it. But he’s scared of the power inside him because he doesn’t know how to control it. The power that got his mother killed and that his father wants to control to bring chaos into the world.


	4. Chapter 4

##  **Book 1: Air**

###  Chapter 4: Truth

Neil returns to train with Kevin on the following day. He begins to follow Kevin’s instructions but when Kevin orders him to adjust his stance for the fifth time, Neil bites his lip to refrain himself from speaking; he bites his lip so hard that he can taste blood in his mouth. Feeling ridiculous, Neil looks around to try to calm down and he finds Andrew already watching him. Andrew arches his eyebrow and something snaps in Neil. Andrew is right, why is he letting Kevin waste his time with basic things that he already knows? Neil gets up and turns around to leave.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kevin asks.

Neil spares him a glance and continues to walk away. “I’m done with this. I’m not a child.”

“How am I supposed to teach you if you can’t even master discipline itself?” Kevin shouts but Neil continues to walk. “I told you we’re going to start with the most basic exercises for me to determine where you stand,” Kevin continues and then after a moment he throws a fire punch at Neil.

Neil quickly turns around and blocks the attack. “You didn’t even test my knowledge at all,” Neil bites back. And he sees everyone stopping what they’re doing to watch them.

Kevin nods approvingly, “You know how to defend yourself but can you do anything else?”

Neil smirks. “Go on,” he challenges Kevin. He knows that he’s out of practice and he will not be anywhere near his level, but at least he can truly use fire and show Kevin that he knows something.

Kevin doesn’t hesitate and shoots several fire blasts. Neil blocks the first, redirects the second back to Kevin who easily blocks it, and the third one almost hits Neil sending him to the floor when he tries to block it.

Kevin creates a fire whip and twirls it around to make it bigger. Neil gets up in a jump and fire kicks towards Kevin, who easily blocks it with the whip. Kevin then attacks him with the fire whip and Neil is thrown onto the floor once again for trying to block it.

“That’s enough, Kevin,” Dan warns him.

Kevin looks in Dan’s direction. “He was the one that asked for this,” he replies but lets go of his fire. He takes a few steps closer to Neil. “You’re in terrible shape, you’re too slow and your bending has no strength behind it.”

Neil spits out the dirt from his mouth and sits up on the floor panting. “Will you bring me back into shape?”

Kevin nods with a serious face. “I will start designing a workout plan for you, and tomorrow–”

“Ugh, Kevin you take all the fun of things,” Allison interrupts him, which grants her an annoyed look from him. “And I believe I just won a bet. Everybody pay up, I told you that they would fight before the weekend.”

“Oh come on, this hardly counted as a fight,” Nicky whines. He looks at Neil and mouths “sorry.”

“Just pay up, and stop crying,” Allison mocks.

Neil isn’t entirely sure that he likes the idea of the others making bets about him. “You made a bet saying that we’re going to fight?”

“Not just that, she specifically said you’re going to snap from the ridiculous exercises,” Matt explains.

“They’re not ridiculous!” Kevin protests, “I started to train with those exercises too.” 

Neil gets up feeling done for the night and begins to walk towards his camp. He’s tired and bruised so when he reaches the top of the hill he sits down beneath a tree, exhausted. A few moments later, Andrew appears. He doesn’t say a word, he just stares at Neil.

“That was pathetic,” Neil says, running a hand over his hair. His bending is so weak. He doesn’t understand it, he hasn’t been using it for a while but before he ran away he was always one of the strongest fire benders in his academy. Bending fire came as easy to him as breathing. Now though, his bending was still there but had no force. He was weak and he needed to fix it.

“Yes, it was,” Andrew agrees.

“Fuck off, Andrew.”

Andrew chooses to ignore him and sits down at a safe distance from him. He slightly tilts his head to the side, studying Neil like he was a puzzle yet to be solved. “Truth for a truth,” he tells him.

“What?”

“I’ll trade you, a truth for a truth.”

Neil stares at him for a moment. Not entirely sure as to what Andrew wants to gain from this. “Okay,” Neil agrees, ultimately because he can’t pass up an opportunity to know more about Andrew..

“Who are you running away from?” 

Neil closes his fists, just thinking about the reason he’s here makes him feel on edge. “My father,” he answers. “Why are you here?”

“I made a deal with Kevin.”

“What kind of deal?” 

“Not your turn,” Andrew points out. “What about your mother?”

“Dead,” he answers without looking away from Andrew. He’s not sure why he’s answering these questions with the truth but Andrew just accepts his response and doesn’t ask for more details or tries to comfort him. He just listens and stores that information away, and for the first time Neil finds someone that he feels it’s easy to talk to.

“To answer your question,” Andrew starts, “Kevin said he’d find us jobs if we helped him find this place,” Andrew pauses and looks at Neil’s arm. “Now, who burned you?”

Neil is taken back, he thought he had been careful covering his arm, always wearing long sleeves. But Andrew must have seen the scars at some point on the field. At the end of the morning the sun becomes so hot that Neil can’t help but roll up his sleeves a little. “My father,” Neil answers. “How long have you been staying here?”

“Since spring last year,” Andrew gets up, apparently done with their game and without a word he leaves.

Neil stares at his figure walking away. And begins to think again at the terrible display of his skills as a firebender. He needs to get back into shape and the only way he can do it is if he starts training more. And the only time he can do it is at night.

***

Weeks pass in a blur, during the afternoon he trains with Kevin and at night he continues to practice alone. Neil can feel himself becoming much stronger physically, no longer having to stop to catch his breath after a couple of minutes of hard training. He’s quick to learn everything that Kevin teaches him, so it doesn’t take them long to start training more advanced levels of firebending.

Even though he’s much better and he knows a lot more complex firebending stances, his bending still has no power behind it. Kevin says that he needs to find his source of power, that firebenders can channel their power from anger or hatred but most draw their power from its source: the sun. Neil tries and tries to feel the sun heating his skin, to focus on it and to try to channel that source of power to no use. 

Neil goes back to the clearing after everyone leaves and continues practicing fire blasts. He sees no improvements, and he knows that Kevin is beginning to think he’s just weak. Neil doesn’t get it, he was so strong when he was younger. Firebending used to be so easy to learn back then. He was so good that his bending was the only thing that his father never complained about him. What would his father say if he saw how weak he was now? After all this time wasting his men to find an avatar that couldn’t even master one element. There would be no use for him, how could he destroy the other nations if he was like this? Lola would be so pissed for chasing after him for so long for nothing. And Nathan…Well, Nathan would make him wish he had died in the same fire that had killed his mother.

Neil begins to feel the panic rise in him. His mother is dead because of him and as long as he’s alive he’ll always be running from Nathan, it’s just a matter of time until he gets caught. And as panic begins to settle he suddenly loses track of what he’s doing. He’s lifting away from the floor but he has no control of his actions. As the power of his fire grows and earth begins to crumble around him he realizes that he’s once again in the avatar state. Only once had he felt this kind of power inside of him, and it had been on his mother’s death. He tries to calm down. He can’t let this control him. So much power and strength and he doesn’t want anything to do with it. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes to focus, they have yet to catch him and he’s in no immediate danger. He continues to focus on his breathing and after a few moments he feels himself returning to the floor once again. 

Neil gets on his knees, his breathing hard, and there’s tears in his eyes that he cleans with his sleeve. He takes a deep breath and looks around. He didn’t even try to do anything with his power, but without even trying he had caused destruction all around him. The grass and plants around him are on fire and if he doesn’t stop it now it will expand to the fields. He calls the fire to him and as he calms down his breathing so does the fire around him extinguish. He turns around thinking of forgetting that this ever happened, when he sees Wymack is watching him. 

Neil freezes in his step. Wymack is stunned just staring at him and Neil takes a step back, immediately thinking about running away.

“Does anyone know?” Wymack asks.

“No,” Neil answers while scanning his surroundings for any more witnesses.

“I won’t tell anyone, kid,” Wymack says when he notices Neil glancing around them. “You can stay.”

“I can’t,” Neil starts feeling panic rise once again. Anyone could have just seen him. How could this happen? He couldn’t even control it. He’s lucky that the area surrounding him is already half destroyed otherwise the others would surely notice the damage.

“That’s your business Neil, I won’t tell,” he reassures. “Have you started to learn the other elements?

Neil clenches his fists and shakes his head.

“I can teach you.”

Neil turns around and starts to walk away. “No, no one can know who I am.”

“No one has to,” Wymack tells him, “we can train at night.”

Neil listens but doesn’t stop walking. He packs his things, mounts his ostrich horse and starts to climb down the hill. He passes the farm and once he’s about to pass the lake he suddenly comes to a halt. 

At the far end of the lake where you can see far away into the open road is a figure sitting down on a massive rock formation. The moonlight is giving enough light that after a moment he recognizes who it is. 

Neil’s too far away and in between trees for Andrew to see him but after a moment Andrew tilts his head to the side and jumps to the floor. For a moment he just stands there in position, knees flexed, head bowed down. And then he turns towards Neil’s direction and stares right at where he is.

Andrew catapults himself into the air. Neil is too stunned to do anything else besides stare at Andrew flying in his direction, in a such a controlled movement that makes him land only a few steps in front of Neil. The force of the impact makes the trees and vegetation around them sway for a moment. 

Andrew pointedly looks up at the bag at Neil’s back, “Running away?”

Neil blinks twice, wondering how on earth did Andrew spot him so far away. “I need to keep moving.”

“Because of your father?” Andrew asks. Neil tightens the grip on his bag and doesn’t answer. “Do you want to stay?”

“I’m putting everyone at risk if I stay.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Neil should leave, anyone could have seen him in the avatar state. But seeing Andrew watching the horizon, Andrew who has been watching him and questioning everything he tells him has made him pause. He’s tired of running and for the first time he wants to stay. He wants to keep practicing his firebending, he wants to keep listening to everyone’s stories at lunch and see them fight just for the fun of it. He wants to stay and learn airbending. If he wants to stop running from his father he needs to master all four elements. He redirects his ostrich horse away from Andrew without saying anything else.

***

Next day comes and Neil walks towards the farm as if nothing had happened the night before. He barely got any sleep, trying to figure out what to do, but he’s here. He made the decision to stay. He grabs a fresh baked bread and an apple and starts to eat as he walks to where he finished working yesterday. He knows that Andrew is watching him but he refuses to look at him for now, choosing to focus on his work.

During lunch he searches for Wymack and finds him talking to Kevin at the front of the house, both studying a book. He wonders what the notebook contains that’s making them so focused and it’s in that moment that Wymack spots him.

“Need something?” He asks and Kevin immediately closes the notebook.

“I need to speak to you.” 

Wymack then looks at Kevin. “We can finish later.”

“I’ll keep working on it inside,” Kevin replies and walks into the house.

Neil and Wymack both watch him enter. Then Wymack sighs, “That kid really doesn’t take a break,” he comments. Neil looks at Wymack and he’s slightly confused with the proud look the older man has.

Neil looks over his shoulder and talks only after Kevin closes the door to the house. “Will you train me?”

“Of course,” the airbender answers. “We can start later tonight but don’t expect any special treatment.”

“I wasn’t thinking about it,” he replies and goes back to his work. He never thought that he would learn a second element unless his father had caught him, but now he couldn’t wait to start.

When night sets and everyone goes to sleep, Neil goes to meet Wymack behind the barn.

“I have to be honest,” Wymack starts, running a hand over his beard, “I never thought I’d be the one training the avatar.”

“Where do we start?”

“Sit down,” Wymack tells him and sits on the floor in front of him. “Air is the element of freedom. The key to airbending is flexibility and finding and following the path of least resistance.”

“The best offense is a good defense,” Neil offers.

“Yes, that’s one way to put it,” Wymack nods approvingly. “Now, a good way to see this is to see how a leaf behaves in the wind.” He picks up a leaf and sends it away with a gush of wind. “Airbending is all about spiral movements,” he adds when the leaf begins to flutter down. “When you meet resistance, you must be able to switch direction at a moment’s notice.” He sends another gush of air towards the leaf that makes it fly further away. They watch it for a moment longer as it resumes fluttering down to the floor. “You need to let your mind and spirit be free, and that is why I need you to meditate.”

“How do I do that?”

“Just close your eyes,” Wymack does it and after a moment’s hesitation Neil does the same. “Focus on your breathing. In and out. Don’t let your mind wander. When it does, just go back to focus on your breathing. Let’s try it for a couple of minutes.”

Neil tries to focus on his breathing but he begins to try to understand what he will gain by just sitting around. He tries to focus again. And begins to wonder if he’s going to actually use airbending or if he’s going to be weaker than he already is with fire. “I don’t think I’m doing this right,” he says, beginning to feel frustrated after a couple of minutes.

“There’s nothing to do. Just let your mind relax from all the stress and away from your thoughts,” Wymack opens his eyes and adds, “You don’t have to close your eyes, I like to watch the sun rise while I meditate, I feel it can be quite relaxing.“

Neil nods. “I’ll keep trying it.”

***

Days pass in a blur, Neil works on the farm, practices firebending with Kevin and some nights he meets Wymack to teach him airbending. The nights he doesn’t train with them he practices by himself. He’s currently sitting down on top of the hill trying to meditate and failing when Andrew joins him.

“What are you doing?” Andrew asks, startling Neil.

Neil uncrosses his legs and looks to the side at where Andrew is standing."Just thinking,” he answers, Andrew doesn’t look like he believes him but seems to let it pass. “Can I have a go?” After Andrew gives him a short nod, Neil continues, “What were you doing on that hill all those nights ago?”

"I couldn’t sleep so I was watching our surroundings." 

Neil nods understanding and looks ahead. He’s too familiar with having nightmares keeping him awake at night. Or waking him up and making him wish he never fell asleep in the first place. For a moment they just stay there, watching the sunset. 

“Have you thought about running away again?” Andrew asks him.

“Why?”

“Just trying to figure you out.”

“I’d like to figure out whatever’s wrong with me too,” Neil confesses.

“Is that why you’re trying to meditate?” Neil blinks twice at Andrew and he adds, “It was obvious what you’re trying to do.”

“I was trying to meditate but I just don’t get it, it seems like my mind is incapable of stopping.”

“Does Wymack think it could help your bending?”

“My bending?” 

“For the way it is.”

“You don’t think I’m just weak, like Kevin keeps saying?”

“No. I see the frustration written all over your face whenever you use your bending,” he pauses, “something changed that affected it. You need to figure out what it is.”

Neil stares at him for a moment too long. “I never really thought about it that way. Wymack wants me to meditate to help my breathing and–” Neil stops mid sentence, his mind running a mile a minute trying to process what Andrew just suggested. He thought his bending was weak because he hadn’t used it for so long but what if that wasn’t the problem? The thing that completely changed his life was discovering that he’s the new avatar. Of having all that power available to him. What if by being scared of all that power he has been resisting it. Maybe even suppressing his bending as much as possible.

“I think I’ve just figured out why my bending is weak,” Neil informs him while he studies Andrew’s profile, “but I’m not sure how to fix it.”

“Don’t look at me,” Andrew says without turning his way, “it’s your problem, you deal with it.”

***

Airbending is frustrating, mostly because Wymack wants him to meditate to clear his mind every time they meet and Neil isn’t a creature to stay quiet for too long. But bending air is all about movement so once he starts to bend air Neil finds learning it to be easy.

“I think that’s enough meditation for today,” Wymack watches Neil for a moment. “Meditation i’s something you master with time, but it will allow you to learn proper breathing technique. And that will be important in any type of bending you’ll learn.”

Neil nods. “What now?

“Now, I think it’s time for a new exercise,” he looks up and points to a tree to their side. “See that tree?” Neil nods. “I want you to climb it to the top.”

Neil looks at the pine tree that Wymack is pointing at. It must be more than 30 feet high. 

Neil turns his attention back to Wymack with his eyebrows raised. So far Wymack has shown him proper foot placement and evasive maneuvers, but nothing that could help him with this. “And how do I do that?”

Wymack propels himself to the nearest tree branch that is taller than Neil. “You have to think as an airbender, we control the air that is all around us, so all you have to do is control the air for a smooth landing and redirect yourself to where you need to go,” the airbender lets himself fall and lands smoothly at Neil’s side. “Now, you try it from that same branch.”

Neil copies Wymack’s movements and when he lands next to the older man he begins to think that airbending is indeed quite liberating. “I think I got it,” Neil says, and turns once again to the tree. He propels himself higher this time and it allows him to jump a few branches up. He pauses for a moment, holding the tree’s trunk to gain balance and jumps again to the next one. On that branch only a small push of his feet is enough to send him further up and in no time he reaches the top branches where he still dares to land. He thinks that at that moment airbending truly seems the most freeing element. 

Neil takes a moment to take in the view surrounding him. It’s dark but the light from the moon allows him to see the shape of the mountains on the horizon, the moon reflected on the lake and Wymack’s house further down. He then takes a deep breath and steps into the air and lets himself fall, using airbending to control the fall and pausing at several branches before reaching the ground. 

Neil easily lands on his feet next to Wymack but the airbender isn’t even looking at him, he’s looking towards his left. Neil follows his gaze and finds Andrew staring back at him. He watches as Andrew tilts his head to the side studying him. Neil doesn’t move, he decides to wait for Andrew to take the first step. He may not know for how long Andrew has been watching him but one thing he does know: Andrew knows that he’s the avatar.


	5. Chapter 5

##  **Book 2: Water**

###  Chapter 1: Trust

Andrew starts to walk in his direction and Neil just stands there, not knowing what to do or say. Andrew knows he’s the Avatar now, he’s sure Andrew must have some questions and when Neil tells him he’s being chased by some of the worst firebenders that work for his father, he’ll want him gone. But Andrew doesn’t speak, he continues to walk until he passes Neil, bumping shoulders with him. Neil, confused, turns his head to follow him.

For a moment he watches as Andrew gets further and further away, unsure if he should follow him or not. He spares a glance at Wymack and the older man is just standing there watching them both. “Don't kill each other,” he says loud enough that Andrew can still hear from where he is. 

Wymack turns around and walks away in the other direction so Neil takes a deep breath and follows Andrew. He walks in silence until they're close to Neil's camp. Andrew sits down at their usual spot and Neil sits by his side waiting for Andrew to speak. However time passes and he still doesn’t say a word. Neil glances at him, and tries to understand what he's thinking but he can't. Neil opens his mouth but he doesn't know what to say and looks down at his hands. He never chose to become the avatar, he never asked for this power and for most of his life he has been running away because of it. He clenches his fists. “Andrew--”

“Shut up,” Andrew interrupts and turns to face him. “Why?” he asks and when he sees the confused look on Neil’s face he adds, “why are you running from your father?”

Neil brings his legs up and puts his arms around them. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Start from the beginning,” Andrew says. “I have nothing but time.”

Neil takes a deep breath and does it, he tells him who his father is and his plans with the Moriyama family. He tells him about his years on the run and about his mother’s death. Not once does Andrew's expression change, he listens and doesn't pity him for his mother's death or his father's abuse. And when Neil’s done spilling all his secrets, he takes a deep breath and watches as Andrew gets up. 

“Go grab your things,” Andrew tells him. 

For a moment Neil freezes. Andrew wants him gone. He gets it, he’s putting a target onto all of their backs, so without a word he goes to the cave to grab his things. He unties the ostrich horse, puts his bag on his shoulder and goes back to where Andrew is.

“Come on,” Andrew tells him and begins to walk down the hill. 

Neil grips his bag and follows him. He should never have stayed this long in one place, and now it was time to go. However, he’s confused when Andrew turns to the farm instead of the road. When they get closer to the camp where everyone is he wonders if Andrew’s going to wake up the others and tell them who he is, but that doesn’t seem like him. So Neil continues to follow him.

Andrew comes to a stop in front of one of the cabins and positions himself with his knees flexed. Neil watches confused as Andrew takes down the cabin and builds a bigger one in its place, just like the ones he had built for everyone else. Then he puts a wall in the middle of it and turns around to face Neil.

“Left side is yours.”

“What?” Is Andrew giving him a place to stay after everything he just told him? He thought he wanted him gone, it makes no sense that he’s letting him stay.

“Do I have to spell it out for you?” Andrew questions, with his eyebrow raised.

“No,” Neil answers and feels relieved, for once he didn’t want to leave a place and now Andrew knows who he really is, and he still wants him to stay. “Thank you,” he tells him.

“Shut up,” Andrew answers as he enters the right side of the cabin, “and go put your ostrich horse in the barn before it escapes,” he adds. Neil nods and Andrew, with a hand movement, closes his side of the cabin.

Neil barely gets any sleep, he keeps thinking about everything that he told Andrew, and that despite everything Andrew still let him stay. Dawn comes and Neil decides to get up. He stretches and sits down at the entrance of his cabin, waiting for everyone else to wake up. And it doesn't take long for him to start hearing movement in the other cabins. 

Renee is the first one to exit, she looks at the sun beginning to rise for a moment, and then she notices him and a gentle smile appears. “Hello Neil, good morning.”

“Good morning,” Neil replies.

Nicky immediately exits followed by Aaron. “Good morning? You're joking right?” he yawns. “I'm so tired I feel like I could sleep the whole week.”

“Let's go eat. I'm starving,” Aaron tells them.

The three begin to walk when Nicky suddenly stops and turns to him, making the others stop too. “Wait, when did you move here?”

“Last night,” Neil replies.

“Took you long enough,” Allison comments as she steps outside, lazily combing her hair with her fingers.

Matt steps out of his cabin holding hands with Dan and they all begin to walk towards the farm. Neil begins to follow them but when the sound of earth moving behind him starts, he stops and looks back. He sees Andrew get out and walk in their direction so Neil waits for him. Aaron passes at his side on his way to the farm and their eyes meet for a moment. Aaron gives him a dirty look that Neil doesn't get. He barely talks to him so he sees no reason for this. He waits for Andrew to reach him and they walk the rest of the way in companionable silence.

***

When Neil arrives at the practice clearing, Kevin is sitting on the floor scribbling down in his notebook. Neil stops in front of him but Kevin is so focused that he doesn't seem to notice him.

“Is that some new exercise for me?”

Kevin looks up, startled. "This? Oh, no. This is something else I’ve been working on." He slips the small notebook into his pocket and gets up. "Let's go work on the range of your fire blasts today."

Matt walks up to them. “Hey, anyone up for a match?”

Kevin nods, looking serious, Neil's exercises immediately forgotten. “You don’t stand a chance.”

“We’ll see about that,” Matt grins and turns to Neil. “Neil, care to join us?”

“Me?” The only person he had fought before was Kevin and it had been a pathetic display of his skills. He’s been improving but he’s not sure he’s up for the challenge yet, but the idea seems too good to pass.

“Why don’t we make teams?” Dan cuts in.

“Yes, that’s a great idea!” Matt replies, putting an arm around her waist to bring her closer.

Dan grins. “I pick Neil.”

“You what?” Matt asks, immediately taking his arm from around her waist and stepping back to face her. “How can you pick him, instead of me?” He says, sounding hurt.

“Don’t be like that, it will be fun.”

“Actually, the smart move would be to pick me. I’m far more skilled than any of them,” Kevin points out. To which Matt rolls his eyes.

“I’m picking Neil,” Dan says more fiercely. “Besides, I don’t need him to beat any of you,” and with that, she begins to walk to the left side of the clearing.

Neil tries to fight his grin at seeing both Kevin and Matt sharing an apprehensive look. “Okay, I guess this is happening,” Neil says and follows Dan. 

“Three,” Nicky, Allisson, Renee and Aaron begin to chant the countdown. Neil glances to where they’re all sitting and sees Wymack and Andrew joining them. He focuses again on Kevin and Matt in front of him and feels the adrenaline kicking in.

"Two," They shout and Neil glances at Dan and they nod at each other.

"One!" 

Fire immediately comes blasting in their direction. “I got it,” he tells Dan and jumps in front of her. He puts his hands together to create an opening into the fire and when it passes, a wave comes their way. Dan is quick to freeze the wave for a moment and then send it back again and Neil sends fire blasts, one after the other in Matt’s direction.

Matt and Dan begin to throw ice disks at each other. Kevin sends a few fire blasts in their direction to which Neil creates a wall of fire to block it. They continue to trade between attacking and defending, and Neil notices that they’re slowly advancing closer towards where Kevin and Matt are. Wymack, after another one of their attacks, appears to their side near a tree. “Dan, why don’t you give Neil some height to distract them, they won’t be expecting it,” he suggests.

Neil isn’t sure what he means but Dan seems to understand and immediately starts to pull more water from the river. “When I tell you, drop the wall and be ready to attack from the air. Okay?” Neil nods and feels water enveloping his waist. Then Dan crunches and says “Now!” and the moment he drops the wall, Dan launches him into the air.

He immediately starts to punch fire in the direction of Matt and Kevin. It takes them a moment to adjust and turn their focus to him in the air, but it’s all it takes for Dan to redirect the water around Neil and freeze Matt to the nearest tree while he’s distracted. Neil falls to the ground but he’s too late to fall properly so when he’s about to hit the ground he puts his hands up to protect his face and unconsciously uses airbending to ease down the fall. Instead of falling and hitting his head, he rolls twice on the ground before he manages to stop. 

When Neil looks up again, Kevin has both his feet frozen to the ground but he’s still throwing fire at Dan to keep her away but she avoids all his punches and with a whip of water she envelops Kevin and blows on the air to turn it to ice, making it impossible for Kevin to move. 

Neil gets up and quickly looks around to see if anyone near him is looking in his direction but everyone is clapping and laughing at Kevin’s annoyed expression to have noticed his use of airbending.

“I think the clear winners for today are Dan and Neil,” Wymack announces and that’s the moment Dan unfreezes both boys. Kevin stomps out of the clearing looking pissed, much to everyone’s enjoyment.

Neil sits beneath a tree to try to catch his breath and begins to smile. He can’t remember the last time he had so much fun. Andrew comes to sit at his side not long after that. “Junkie.”

“What?” 

“This is what you consider fun, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Neil replies, still grinning. "It is fun, you should try it sometime.”

“Pass.”

“What do you care about then?”

“I don’t care about anything.”

Neil hums. He highly doubts that’s true but decides not to comment further. They watch as Renee and Allison begin to practice throwing knives into a target, blindfolded.

“I saw your little trick at the end,” Andrew comments.

Neil turns to stare at him, the remains of his grin completely gone.

“Don’t worry, no one else noticed,” Andrew continues, ”they’re too busy witnessing Kevin throw a tantrum.”

Neil takes a deep breath. Somehow he trusts that what Andrew is telling him is the truth. That no one was paying attention to him at that moment, too busy with what was happening. Except for Andrew, who always seems to be paying attention to him. And for once, Neil thinks that perhaps he doesn’t quite mind it.


	6. Chapter 6

##  **Book 2: Water**

###  Chapter 2: Visitors

Neil suddenly jolts awake. He sits up and looks around, startled. It takes his brain a moment to understand what woke him up but then he hears someone shouting in the distance, so he jumps to his feet and rushes outside.

Neil freezes the moment he sees the massive tree on fire near the entrance to the farm. He looks around, trying to make sense of what is happening, and that’s when Kevin creates a whip of fire, the light of it making it possible for Neil to recognize him. A fire blast is thrown in Kevin’s direction. He stops the attack with the whip and uses it to counterattack. Wymack suddenly becomes visible when he steps closer to the burning tree and it’s in that moment that several shots are fired in their direction.

Kevin and Wymack block the attacks and are quick to retaliate. More fire shots are fired in rapid succession. Wymack avoids the fire by launching himself into the air but he’s caught on his arm by an attack coming from his back. Neil watches in shock as Wymack barely manages to defend himself in time with his other arm, from another attack coming his way. Kevin screams, outraged, and tries to move closer to help him. Kevin proceeds to attack with multiple fire punches in the direction of their attackers but he’s outnumbered and his attacks are blocked and fire is shot from multiple directions back at them giving him no time to breathe.

Neil starts to run in their direction, his heart beginning to race a mile a minute. He’s too far away to see their attackers but he has a sinking feeling that he has been found. But there’s no more running away. He’s not letting them hurt anyone else in here because of him and they’re not getting him without a fight, not anymore. He runs as fast as he can hears someone shouting behind him to wake up everyone else. 

Andrew passes at his side so fast that Neil is slightly thrown off by the sudden movement of the ground caused by his earthbending. He’s halfway there when Andrew catapults himself to the middle of the fight, makes a wall to shield Wymack, and starts to attack viciously. Neil falters a step when he sees Lola turn to face Andrew and send fire in his direction. She had finally found him.

Neil keeps running towards Andrew’s side and throws a fire punch when he sees an opening. Romero blocks it and begins to grin when he notices who he is. “I’ll be damned if it isn’t Nathaniel,” he says.

Lola shifts places with Romero and starts attacking in his direction. They punch, one after the other, and Kevin and Neil take turns to block them. Andrew builds another wall to protect them for a moment and sends it in their opponents direction and that’s when Neil and Kevin attack together. Wymack proceeds to blow wind so strong in their direction that Lola and Romero fall and keep getting thrown further away into the trees.

Neil runs in Lola’s direction, anger beginning to boil inside him. He hears someone calling his name but he doesn’t look back. They can do whatever they want to him but he isn’t letting them hurt anyone else here because of him. “Leave them alone,” Neil shouts at her between launching fire blasts in her direction, “it’s me you want, not them.”

Lola gives him a cold smile. “Things have changed, Nathaniel,” she fires back, “now I’m just here to kill you.” She continues to attack and Andrew puts himself in front of Neil to block her attack with a massive wall.

Neil didn’t even notice Andrew coming his way. He shares a glance with Andrew behind the wall. He doesn’t know what to think at this moment. Had his father found another way to dethrone the firelord? If that had already happened he’s sure they would have heard the news. So whatever new plan he has, it’s yet to happen.

“Focus,” Andrew tells him. Neil gives a quick nod and prepares himself. Andrew punches several times through the wall to send the rocks in her direction and Neil fires some punches too.

Romero is about to attack them from behind when an arrow is thrown at him, pinning his trousers to the ground, and making him fall. Andrew takes the opportunity to trap Romero’s hands and feet with earth and Aaron grabs a rock and moves past them to hit Romero on his head, making him fall unconscious. Neil glances at his side and sees Renee lowering her bow. The others are already fighting the other two firebenders that came with Lola in the middle of the field. Renee gives him a reassuring nod and Neil focuses on the threat in front of them.

“Leave now,” Neil warns Lola.

“Oh I don’t think so, not when I just realized who your new friend is.” She attacks as soon as Kevin reaches their side, throwing fire punches in his direction. “Riko will be pleased to know where you are hiding, Kevin.”

In the corner of his eye he can see Kevin freeze for a second, and then he begins to look around in a frantic motion, panic immediately taking over with what Lola just said. This is all his fault and he won’t stand for this. He will not be the cause for Kevin to go back to the Ravens. 

It’s been years since Neil ran away but he heard enough stories about them to know that it’s a death sentence to go back there after you run away. Neil steps next to Kevin, and the others start to make a circle around Lola. She glances around, noticing how severely outnumbered she is but keeps fighting in every direction.

“Kick and then punch towards the sky,” Kevin muters. He follows Kevin’s lead as he kicks fire in her direction. As expected by Kevin, in order to avoid the fire, Lola jumps over them, but they’re prepared and as soon as they see her in the air, they punch. 

Lola is quick and uses their fire to blast herself further away but she runs into an ice wall made by Dan, the impact making the wall shatter all around her. Neil watches as she falls down, looking unconscious. When she hits the ground she opens her eyes and begins to get up when she seems to fall into a hole in the ground up to her waist.

Neil looks at Andrew right by his side, blank expression giving nothing away of what he’s thinking while he holds her down. Neil, panting, walks up to her. “What new plan does he have now?” he questions, because above all else, he needs to know what changed.

She begins to laugh. “You look so much like him, too bad you’re such a disgrace to your family,” she spits.

“Answer him,” Andrew says, stepping closer. When she doesn’t say a word he adds, “I won’t ask again,” and sinks her further into the ground, leaving only her head up.

“You think I’m scared of you?” She begins to grin.

Andrew gives her a cold smile. “Wrong answer,” he comments, and fully sinks her under the ground.

Seconds pass and they all walk closer towards where she was.

“Andrew, that’s enough,” Wymack warns.

“Not yet,” Andrew waits a few more seconds and then brings her head up to the surface.

Lola gasps for air and Andrew moves one step closer. “Answer him, or next time I’ll leave you three feet underground.” 

She glares at him, no longer thinking that Andrew is someone to give empty threats. “There’s a comet coming,” she lets out, still trying to catch her breath, “and with it the power of one hundred suns.”

“When?” Neil demands. A comet changes everything. Nathan won’t need him to do his dirty work, he and his men will be much more powerful than the other type of benders. Neil can’t believe it, he’s been on the run for this long and his mother died for the Moriyama's plan not to happen. It couldn’t have been for nothing.

“There’s nothing you can do,” she begins to grin coldly at him, “Not even you, the avatar, will be able to stop it.”

He feels everyone staring at his back. Neil doesn’t know what to say or do, he never asked for this and now he feels helpless. He looks at Andrew and for a moment they lock eyes. How is he going to stop this from happening? Andrew breaks eye contact and throws a rock at Lola’s head, knocking her unconscious. 

“You knew who I was, didn’t you?!” Kevin accuses him and pushes Neil, “and you led them right to me!” he shouts, looking desperate.

Neil clenches his fists and doesn’t say a word. He knew he shouldn’t have stayed for this long. Not after Wymack discovered who he was and definitely not after Andrew saw him practice airbending. But he’s tired of running. Kevin pushes him again, this time harder, throwing him to the floor and Neil does nothing to stop him. “Riko’s going to find me and I'll never be able to leave the Ravens again,” Kevin shouts and Neil can feel the panic in Kevin's voice.

“Enough,” Andrew says and steps in front of Neil. “Go pack, now,” he tells Kevin.

“What?”

“We’re leaving, go pack.”

“Wait, hold on!” Nicky says and jumps next to Kevin. “What the hell just happened here?” He turns to the others and points at Neil. “And lets not forget she just told us he’s the avatar?! Is no one else freaking out about that?”

“Neil, are you really--” Matt starts.

“Yes,” Neil interrupts him. 

Allison whistles. “Damn, Neil.”

“What are we supposed to do now?” Aaron questions.

“Andrew is right.” Everyone turns to Wymack. Dan is already at his side, looking apprehensively at his injured arm. “Go pack, none of us can stay here,” he tells everyone. 

“But where are we going? Those people are going to chase us now!” Kevin yells, pointing at Lola on the floor.

“He’s got a point,” Dan comments, while she bends water around Wymack’s arm and suddenly the water begins to glow under her hands and Neil is transfixed. He had never seen a waterbender heal someone before.

Wymack turns his head towards Andrew. “We can give them to the guards. It won’t hold them long but it can give us some time.” 

Andrew nods and turns to Renee. “We need to figure out where we’re going.”

“Omashu is close, we’ll be safe there. We can warn the earth nation from there?” She offers.

“No,” Neil interrupts and everyone turns to him. “Didn’t you hear her? The comet is coming. I can’t hide anymore, I need to stop them before it happens.”

“What exactly will happen?” Matt asks.

“War between the nations,” Everyone stops for a moment, letting it sink in. “If she’s telling the truth--”

“She is,” Andrew informs him.

“Then there’s no other way, I have to go back to the fire nation and stop them.”

“But for now, we need to get out of here,” Wymack reminds them. 

Dan removes the water from Wymack’s arm. “It wasn’t severely burned so I don’t think you’ll get a scar if I can do a few more sessions.”

Wymack puts a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you, Dan.” Wymack calls Blue and they put their attackers on the Bison’s saddle. “When we get back, we need to figure out where to hide near the fire nation.”

“If you want to go to the fire nation,” Allison starts, “we can go to my island and hide there.”

“Your island?” Nicky asks, with his mouth open.

“It’s my family vacation house.”

“You’re joking,” Matt starts, “who owns an island?”

“It’s very small,” Allison dismisses him with a wave. “We can hide there, my parents won’t go there until next summer.”

Neil is taken aback. “I can’t ask you to come with me--”

“Just, shut up,” Andrew interrupts him. They stare at each other until Andrew turns around and catapults himself into Blue’s saddle just when Blue begins to lift into the air.

Matt and Dan focus on putting the fire out, while everyone else starts to run around to grab their belongings and food for their journey. When Wymack and Andrew return they seem to have made a plan on the way back. Since Blue can’t fly with all of them they have to split up. Wymack and Kevin are going to get Abby and then they will be travelling to Ba Sing Se, with the mission of discovering when the comet is going to arrive and after they find the information they need, they’ll join them in the fire nation.

Allison points out the location of the island on a map and gives it to Wymack. While the others pack their belongings, using Neil’s ostrich horse and Allison’s to carry most of the weight.

Before they split up, Dan walks up to Wymack and gives him a careful hug. “Don’t worry, Abby will take good care of me,” Wymack reassures her. Dan nods and steps back into Matt’s arms. Wymack looks around. “Be safe, we’ll see you soon.” He jumps to Blue’s saddle and everyone wishes them a safe trip. 

Kevin is about to climb up on the bison when Neil walks to his side. “Kevin, wait.”

Kevin stops, but he refuses to look at him. “I won’t let them send you back to the Ravens,” Neil tells him quietly. A moment passes and Kevin glances at him. “I won’t,” Neil repeats more fiercely and Kevin nods before he climbs to join Wymack.

They all watch them disappear into the night sky for a moment, then one by one, they start to walk away. Neil takes a step but notices something on the ground and stops. It’s a small notebook, dirty and wrinkled. He feels Andrew pause at his side while he picks it up. It’s open on one page but Neil can’t quite figure out what he’s looking at so he shows it to Andrew. 

“That’s Kevin’s,” Andrew informs him. “He’s going to go mental when he finds out that he lost it,” and Neil is surprised to find the hint of a smile in Andrew’s expression.

He looks down at the page again for a moment. He doesn’t understand the oval divided in half with the elements drawn on the side. “What do you think this is?”

Andrew ignores his question and begins to follow the others. Neil puts the notebook in his pocket and takes a deep breath. In just a few hours everything changed. Now he’s on his way to face his father, something he never really thought of doing, but as he watches everyone abandon the farm because of him, he knows he has to do this. He can’t let Nathan start a war without doing everything in his power to stop it.


	7. Chapter 7

##  **Book 2: Water**

### Chapter 3: Travelling

They travel the rest of the night at a rapid pace, trying to put as much distance between them and the farm. 

According to Dan’s map they need to walk around most of the mountain to be able to get to the bay so it will take them several days. Renee suggests that they travel into the mountain and climb it to pass to the other side. No one is thrilled by the suggestion but Dan who has seen the mountains from the sky on her regular trips with Wymack to the market, is confident that it will save them time.

The first time they stop, the sun is already rising. Everyone drops down to the floor, too exhausted to continue. Matt starts passing water and it’s only in that moment that Neil really notices everyone’s state around him. He had been too lost in his head, thinking about Lola and the comet that he only focused on Andrew’s back in front of him as they walked quietly under the moonlight. Neil takes it all in, the bags under everyone’s eyes, the uneasy way they keep looking around their surroundings, Allison's hand wrapped in fabric and Aaron’s dried blood on his cheek.

“Neil, come over here,” Dan calls him as she walks to Allison’s side. She unwraps Allison’s hand and inspects the cut she suffered. “You’re not really supposed to start with healing lessons when you start training,” she begins to explain, “Matt started learning with me recently but I’m hoping that your mojo as the avatar has some perks and you can learn quickly.”

“My mojo?” Neil questions, as he sits down next to them.

“Well, you’re the avatar you have access to the power of all your past lives.”

“Yes, but I can only access that kind of power in the avatar state and I’ve never entered it on purpose,” Neil explains. He pauses for a moment and adds more quietly, “I can’t control it.”

“Well, I'm sure past avatars have learned to heal so I'm sure you'll be good at it too.”

“I’m really loving this conversation but can we have it after you heal me?” Allison says, slightly annoyed.

Dan arches one eyebrow. “If you prefer, I can just leave your hand as it is.”

Allison yawns. “Sorry, it’s been a long night. I just want to get some sleep before lunch time.” 

“Me too,” Dan agrees, they exchange weak smiles and Dan begins to bend the water to cover Allison’s hand. “First lesson is that the chi is the lifeforce of the body, and what we do is reroute the energy to the injured area of the body.”

Neil watches, amazed, as she works. After noticing some lighter cuts in Allison’s arm, Dan envelops the entire arm with water. Dan moves her hands and the water begins to glow and moments later she removes the water and the cuts are no longer there.

“Thanks love,” Allison says and gives Dan a kiss on her cheek before getting up. 

At their side, Matt is healing the cut Aaron has suffered on his cheek. “Nicely done,” Dan praises him when he finishes, which grants her a bright smile from Matt. Dan turns towards Neil after a moment. “We're starting on your waterbending today, so you better rest.”

Neil blinks twice at her. They haven’t spoken about it on the way here but now that they all know that he’s the avatar and it’s clear that he hasn’t mastered all the elements Dan wants to help him. “Thank you,” he tells her, Dan is a great master and he can’t wait to start learning waterbending with her. 

Neil gets up and moves to find a spot to put his sleeping bag. He dreams of Lola finding them, and returning him to his father. He wakes up with a cold sweat not long after, and decides to just lay there and wait for the others to wake up.

A few hours later, when the sun is shining right above their heads, the others begin to stir awake. They sit in a circle and divide the food that they brought from the farm. After they’re done eating Neil takes a deep breath and tells them about his past, not in so many details as he told Andrew, but if he’s putting all of them at risk he figures they deserve to know why. Once he’s done talking, he can’t deal with their looks of horror and pity for his troubled past so he gets up and walks to the small river near their camp. 

Dan walks up to him after a long while. She sits by his side and they both stare at the water for a moment. “How about we start your waterbending training?” she suggests.

“Sounds good,” Neil replies. Anything that keeps his mind busy is good. “Where do we start?”

They get up and walk closer to the water. Dan stops, facing the water with her arms pointing in front of them and one leg positioned in front of the other, so Neil copies her stance. “Let's start with a simple move of just moving the water,” Dan starts, “you push,” she moves her arms forward, “and pull the water,” and as Dan moves her arms back and forth, the water moves with her.

Neil studies how she’s moving for a moment, and tries to mimic the fluid movement of her arms and legs. It’s nothing like firebending, where you need precision and sureness to land a punch exactly how you want it. “Like this?”

“Relax your shoulders a bit more, your movements are too stiff,” Dan instructs. “Keep practicing, it’s normal if you don’t get it right away.”

Neil continues to practice the movement with no luck. “I don’t get it, I caught on to airbending pretty quickly,” 

“Yeah, but air is not the opposite element to fire, so I think it’s expected that you struggle a little with water.”

“Oh, right,” Neil frowns at the water. What if he doesn’t manage to learn waterbending quickly? He doesn’t have months to practice and be patient. He asks Dan to show him the move again and keeps doing it.

“Remember to focus on the movement of the water, on the push and pull of the water beating at the rocks. On the constant movement of the water going back and forth.”

Neil takes a deep breath and continues, and this time he doesn’t focus on his body; he’s done this movement so many times just now that he’s sure that he got it. He solely focuses on the water and after a while he feels the push and pull of the water calling to him. And when he moves his arms again, the water moves with him.

Dan continues to teach him a few more simple movements and after a while they join the others to continue their journey. They walk until night settles in and make camp for the night near a lake.

Next morning, Dan takes him into the lake and begins to show him how to use water to shield himself and to turn water into ice. She uses waterbending to create an ice platform for them to stay in the middle of the lake and Neil thinks that it’s a very useful thing to learn and really enjoys learning how to do it himself.

Matt catches some fish for their lunch and once he has enough for everyone he calls them back to shore. Neil makes a fire and everyones begins to sit around the fire while they wait for the food to be ready.

“Congratulations Neil,” Matt says grinning, “you’re now at the level of a ten year old waterbender.” 

“Just give him a few more days and he’ll be better than you,” Nicky mocks him.

“He has a great teacher,” Matt admits. Dan rolls her eyes and sits next to him,“But I don’t think so,” Matt adds and puts an arm around Dan to bring her closer.

Neil sits down at Andrew’s side and notices the deep dark circles around his eyes and frowns. Has Andrew not been sleeping? He’s always the last one to get up in the morning. Neil decides not to comment on it, and eats in silence listening to everyone talking around him.

That night, Neil can’t fall asleep. He sits up against a tree, takes a sip of water to clear his mind, and looks around at everyone sleeping near him, and that’s when he notices that Andrew is missing. He hasn’t seen Andrew since lunch. Nicky told him that Andrew would be back soon, and didn’t seem too bothered by it, but it bothered Neil. What if Andrew had been captured? Or injured? And they were not even searching for him? Unsure on what to do, Neil gets up and walks to the lake and sits there. He looks at the reflection of the moon on the lake and wonders where Andrew could be. 

Since he can’t sleep, he decides to practice his airbending. He’s been focused on learning waterbending but he’s far from mastering airbending either. He practices climbing the trees with only air to lift him up and easily uses air to jump from one tree to another. He’s halfway up a pine tree when he spots a silhouette further down the lake. He moves quickly and quietly between the trees to get closer and try to understand who it is. He immediately relaxes when the light from the moon reveals that it’s Andrew calmly walking towards their camp. 

He jumps to a closer tree and drops to the floor at Andrew’s side. In a second he’s being thrown over in the air. As he falls, another rock comes his way, he manages to shove it to the side with a fire punch and then uses air to ease his descent to the floor. 

Andrew is about to attack again, rock suspended in the air when he seems to recognize him. “Neil?”

“Yeah,” Neil pants, relaxing his stance.

Andrew drops the rock to the floor. “What are you doing here alone?”

“Practicing.”

“I don’t know why I even asked,” Andrew mutters and begins to walk. “Next time, don’t fucking jump next to me,” he points out.

Neil begins to walk at his side. “Why aren't you sleeping?”

“I've been checking our surroundings.”

“Alone?” Neil asks, “what if you find them?”

“I fight them.”

“You can't fight them all.” When Andrew doesn’t answer Neil stops. “Andrew,” he calls and Andrew pauses a step in front of him. “She won't hesitate to kill you,” he tells him.

Andrew turns around to face him. “Then, it'll be a matter of who can kill the other first.”

“But that's the thing, she won't be alone, her soldiers will attack too.” Andrew’s good but he would be easily outnumbered. “You're trying to protect everyone but who's going to protect your back?”

Andrew begins to walk away again. “I don't need anyone to protect me.” 

“Let me go with you then,” Neil tries to reason and follows him, “if we find her, I'll kill her myself.”

“There's no point, I've already checked and I can't feel anyone near us.” 

“How do you do that?” He never really figured out how Andrew always knew where he was.

“If I focus, I can feel the vibrations on the earth,” Andrew begins to explain, “and with it I can sense where people and objects are.” 

“In that case, how did you not know where I was just moments ago?”

“If you had been on the ground I would've known but you jumped from the trees. That takes a little more concentration and I had just checked this area not too long ago. I was just going back to camp,” Andrew explains.

“That's still really useful,” Neil comments. Andrew hums. Maybe one day he’ll be able to learn that. Maybe... If he stays alive long enough. “Is that a common skill of an earthbender?” He had never heard of it.

“I don’t think so. I think it’s like a firebender controlling lightning or a waterbender healing. Not everyone is able to master it.”

“But those things can be taught.”

“To a point, yes,” Andrew agrees, “I tried to teach Erik how to do it, but he didn’t really get much further than the basics.”

They continue to walk in silence for a few minutes. “My father wanted me to learn to control lightning,” Neil shares.

“Did you?”

“No, I ran away before I started lessons with the Ravens.”

Andrew pauses for a second at that information and continues to walk when Neil is at his side. They walk the rest of the way to camp in comfortable silence.

***

The following day they reach the base of the mountain in the afternoon and decide to make camp for the night. Neil follows Dan and Matt to the river so they can continue to train waterbending.

They’ve been practicing for a while, Neil guides once again the blob of water back to Dan and it’s in that moment that in the corner of his eye he notices Andrew walking down the path to the river where they are and all of a sudden Neil’s hit right on the chest and falls backwards.

“What are you looking at? Focus!” she shouts.

Neil, annoyed at himself and slightly embarrassed for getting distracted, guides the water back at Dan with so much force that he knocks Dan into the water.

Surprised, Dan quickly gets back on her feet and stares at him for a moment. “That was good,” she praises him and then throws it back at Neil again who blocks it instead with fire, creating steam all around him.

“Don’t use the other elements!” Dan shouts at him.

They continue to train for a while with Andrew watching them. Neil tries to pay him no attention and focuses on practicing waterbending. At the end of the day he feels good about his progress, he can already use water to shield himself, and throw spears of ice to attack. Dan is also impressed by his progress and tells him that at their next stop they can practice more advanced techniques.

***

They start to move up in the mountain to be able to cross it and the temperature starts to drop the higher they get. Matt and Dan don't seem to be bothered by it but it leaves everyone else in a bad mood. Hours later, Dan tells them to stop and start to make camp for the night. 

“How are you not cold?” Allison asks as she gets closer to the fire Neil just created.

“I use my bending to control my body temperature,” Neil explains.

“Well, aren't you lucky,” she mutters.

Nicky stops at her side, rubbing his hands. “Can you make it bigger? I can't feel my toes.”

“Sure,” Neil focuses on the fire and makes it stronger.

“Finally some warmth, damn I could kiss you right now!” Nicky says, turning to Neil, “Do you want a kiss?” he asks wiggling his eyebrows, “because if you do, you need to get closer because I'm not moving from this spot.”

Allison snorts. “Leave him alone, Nicky”

“I was just offering.” 

Not long after they finish eating, everyone starts to settle in around the fire, preparing to get some sleep, and exhausted from the journey they fell asleep pretty quickly. Neil, despite feeling quite tired, can't seem to fall asleep. Later, when he thinks everyone is already asleep, he hears someone getting up so Neil turns to the side to see who it is. 

Neil watches Andrew move his sleeping bag as close to the dying fire as he dares. He knows that Andrew doesn’t like the cold, he’s just not vocal about it like the others. Neil bites his lip for a moment before deciding to get up and move his things to Andrew's side. He knows that Andrew won't ask but Neil can move closer to him for the heat, it's the least he can do, they're all here because of him, he reasons.

He can feel Andrew follow him with his gaze as he lays down at his side. “What do you think you're doing?” Andrew whispers.

“You're cold,” Neil states, and makes his temperature rise to a point that he knows that Andrew can feel it, “I can help.”

Andrew arches an eyebrow. 

“I can leave if you want.”

“Just be quiet,” Andrew mutters and Neil fights the urge to grin. They contemplate the stars above them for a while. Neil isn’t sure when Andrew falls asleep but at some point he hears a shift in his breathing that indicates to him that Andrew’s sleeping and Neil eventually falls asleep too.

***

The following day they continue to climb further into the mountain. Neil notices that their pace is slowing down, they all feel exhausted from the journey, even Nicky seems to have lost his will to talk while they walk, focusing instead on where he puts his feet. 

Neil walks besides Andrew as they climb the mountain and the higher they get he notices that Andrew begins to look more and more tense. At one point he catches Andrew glancing at the bottom of the mountain with distrust, and it suddenly hits Neil that Andrew might be afraid of heights.

When the sun begins to set they reach the top that allows them to cross and they decide to stop and make camp for the night. They're as high as they need to be able to cross and from here it’s almost a straight line to the bay. Neil looks around, he can already see the vast body of water in the distance, they’re almost there, the harder part was climbing the mountain.

The wind is unforgiving at such a height so in an attempt to shield them from the wind Andrew, with his bending, makes small tents for them to sleep in.

Andrew motions for Neil to follow him to the tent he has built. He can feel more than one pair of eyes on his back as he follows Andrew but he doesn’t really care what the others think this could mean. Neil follows Andrew inside and lays down next to Andrew. He’s aware that Andrew doesn't like to be touched so he tries to put as much space between them, even though it’s almost impossible in such a small space. Then, Andrew closes most of the entrance so that the cold wind is mostly blocked.

Neil lights a small flame on his palm to give them some light and watches as Andrew pulls his sleeping bag over his head until Neil can only see his eyes. “Can I have a turn?” Neil asks.

“Go ahead.”

“Are you afraid of heights?” Andrew stills and stares at Neil, “Andrew, you can’t be,” Neil didn’t really imagine that Andrew was afraid of anything until today.

“What if I am.”

“But you’re always throwing yourself into the air.”

“So?” Andrew pauses, “Just because I’m afraid of heights it doesn’t mean that I let it control me.” Andrew closes his eyes after a moment, a clear indication that he doesn’t want to talk about it more so Neil lets his flame die.

Neil thinks about what Andrew just said to him until he falls asleep. He thinks about the avatar state and all his power. The power that all his countless past lives managed to control. If only there’s a way for him to talk to one of the previous avatars and ask for advice. According to all the books he is able to do it, somehow. If he can figure out a way to talk to the avatar prior to him, avatar Kyoshi, maybe he can figure out how to use that power and instead of letting the avatar state control him, he could control it.

***

When they start to climb down the mountain, the sight of the bay gives them renewed strength and they manage to reach the small town in the middle of the afternoon. Renee and Allison go to the town alone to sell their ostrich horses and to try to find a small ship that’s not being used for them to steal. While they wait for the girls to return, Neil uses the time to practice waterbending with Matt.

They return a couple hours later, with food for their journey and the information that a small older ship is in the dock for some repairs so they’re confident that no one will be on it at night.

“What kind of repairs?” Aaron asks.

“It has hit a reef so there’s a hole on the side,” Renee explains.

“So it’s useless?”

“Not useless,” Dan cuts in. “You seem to be forgetting that there’s three waterbenders here.”

“Yeah, nothing a little ice won’t fix,” Matt adds.

They wait for night to settle in to sneak into the port and pass the only guard on sight. As predicted by Renee and Allison there’s no one on the small ship when they enter and inspect the ship. Dan creates a fog to give them cover while Matt and Neil go below deck to find the hole to patch it up. It’s not a big hole and some work has started to be done to fix it but Matt kicks the temporary boards into the ocean and sends the water out of the ship. Neil is quick to make a good block of ice around the area to prevent the water from coming in.

Matt nods appreciatively. “Not bad, you’re getting the hang of it.”

“Thanks, Matt. You’re a great teacher too, you know.”

“Aw man, don’t say things like that, you’re going to make me blush.”

Neil without knowing what to say turns around. “Come on, Dan is waiting for us to move this thing.”

They climb the stairs and join her at the front of the ship. The three of them begin to bend the water and quickly they raise the water level for the ship to be easier to maneuver. And then they send the ship forward, away from the dock as fast as they can.

The whole journey they keep a thick fog around them and don’t light any lamps for anyone not to notice them from further away. On the first day they see two other ships in the distance but Dan makes the fog so thick that it’s even hard for them to see 30 feet in front of their own ship.

“You know, now would be the perfect opportunity for us to witness the avatar state. We could be there by morning,” Nicky says looking hopeful at Neil.

Neil looks away to the sea. If only it was that simple. “I can’t--I can’t access that power.” 

“You’ve never used it before?”

“I have.”

“How was it?” Allison asks.

“Destructive,” Neil answers and gets up. He walks away from everyone to the other side of the small ship.

He grabs the rail and watches the moon reflected on the sea in front of him. Andrew stops at his side. “I wish I could tap into that power. They make it sound so easy.”

“The textbooks make it sound that all the avatar has to do is want to access it, and it’s there for him.”

He takes a moment and asks. “What if I don’t want to?”

Andrew tilts his head to study him. “Maybe that’s your problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re the avatar, you’re supposed to use it, not fight it.”

***

Two days pass with nothing but water surrounding them. Neil’s arms ache and Dan has been healing him after a couple of hours of waterbending. The sun begins to rise and an island becomes visible on the horizon.

“We’re getting really close now,” Allison informs them. They pass a couple of islands that to Neil all look the same but Allison recognizes the area and starts to give them directions to direct the ship. At some point, Allison appears at his side and points into the distance. “There!” she shouts, “that’s the one.”

They move the ship as fast as they can towards the island. 

Neil watches more islands appear in the distance and remembers when he crossed the sea with his mother years ago to escape his father when he discovered he was the avatar. Suddenly, he remembers that in one of the islands there’s a temple dedicated to the avatar, maybe if he goes there he’ll have a chance at figuring out how to talk to avatar Kyoshi. It’s been years since he’s been in the fire nation, but now that he’s back there’s no more running away. No more running from his father and from his powers.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw for some injuries but nothing graphic

##  **Book 3: Earth**

### Chapter 1: The Temple

As soon as the ship stops, Matt jumps out off the ship, pulling Dan with him. Neil grins as Matt collapses into the sand while Dan sits down at his side and drinks some water.

Neil looks around and besides the palm trees slowly swinging from the breeze and the vegetation surrounding them, there’s nothing in sight. Looking more closely, he can see the top of what he assumes is Allison’s house in between the trees. He wants to explore the island and make sure that no one is here but after bending water for hours on end Neil can barely move his arms so he decides to jump out of the ship into the sand, and sit at Dan’s side to rest while the others take their belongings out of the ship.

Nicky and Allison jump out of the ship and Renee and Aaron start passing them their bags. Andrew appears at the top of the ship holding two bags, one in each hand. He disappears for a moment and then he jumps out of the ship, managing to avoid not touching the water. Neil watches him slowly walk in his direction, frowning at the sand until Dan nudges his arm with her water pouch. Without a word, Neil accepts it and takes a sip of water.

“Want some?” Neil questions, extending the water pouch to Andrew once he reaches his side.

Andrew sits at Neil’s side and accepts it. He takes a few sips and returns it to Neil, who takes another sip before returning it to Dan. Then, Andrew grabs a handful of sand and stares at it while it starts to slip away between his fingers.

“Can you bend it?”

“It’s not the same,” Andrew comments and grabs more sand and closes his fist for a second, and when he opens it a small rock made of sand is now on his palm, “but I can work with it.” Neil grins when Andrew gets up and positions himself in front of the ship. “Is everything out of the ship?” Andrew asks Renee, when she’s close enough that he doesn’t have to shout for her to hear.

“Yes, we took everything that’s ours,” she confirms.

Andrew positions himself with his knees flexed, he moves his arm from left to right in a downward movement and they watch the ship disappear into the sand.

Once the ship is taken care of, they all follow Allison in the direction of her house. She gives them a tour of the place, and Neil after seeing the fourth bedroom feels like he’s seen enough so he takes the stairs to the main floor and sits with Andrew in one of the living rooms to wait for the others to come down.

Some time later, Allison appears with clothes from her father's room for them to change into. She asks them to follow her to their guest bedroom, the only one on the ground level. They reach the bedroom and Neil stops at the entrance and stares at the massive king bed in the middle of it. Andrew moves past him and puts the two bags that he’s been carrying around on the floor, and it’s only in that moment that Neil notices that one of the bags is his own. 

He opens his mouth to ask Allison if this bedroom is for the both of them but before he can say anything, Allison walks away. Neil hesitates for a second before he moves past Andrew and enters the bathroom. He closes the door, strips down and dresses in the clothes Allison gave him. It’s not a surprise that the clothes are too big on him so he just rolls the pants a few times. At least if they happen to see other people, they won’t draw too much attention if they’re all wearing fire nation colors.

Neil steps out of the bathroom and stares at the full length mirror in the wall. He’s not sure how he feels about using clothes from his nation after so long. He spent all his childhood wearing these colors and feeling scared of his father.

Andrew turns around and stares at him through the mirror. “Those are just clothes.”

Neil sighs. “I know.” He stares a second longer at Andrew before looking down at his feet. He knows it, but he can’t help the memories they bring back.

“I can fix those for you.” Andrew tells him.

Neil, confused, turns around to look at Andrew. “Fix what?”

“Your pants,” Andrew explains as he points to Neil’s folds.

“It’s fine.”

Andrew makes a disapproving sound. “At least let me cut the extra, you look ridiculous.”

Neil looks down at his feet, he sees nothing wrong but if it bothers Andrew he’ll let him cut the extra fabric. “Okay.”

“Change into your other pants while I fix that.” 

Neil returns to the bathroom and changes again. He’s careful not to unfold the extra fabric on the bottom so that Andrew knows what to cut. He places the pants at the end of the bed and gets out of the room to give Andrew some space. 

Neil finds the others gathered in the living room all dressed as fire nation citizens and it’s strange to see everyone in different colors. Nicky and Renee ask Allison to give them a tour of the island, Dan and Aaron say they’ll pass but Matt says he wants to have a look around and so Neil joins them too.

It’s no surprise that there’s not really much to see besides the vegetation and the ocean surrounding them. But checking the area around them and not seeing any signs of anyone else in the area helps to calm Neil slightly. On the way back to the house they collect fruit they find growing on their path and Neil spots an animal. It's bright orange coat catches his attention and he stops to watch it for a moment. "What animal is that?" Neil asks when Matt and Allison stop at his side.

"A fox antelope?" Matt suggests, not sounding convinced.

“I think it's way too small to be a fox antelope," Neil says. "Maybe a fire ferret?"

"Nah. The tail isn't right."

Allison snorts. "That's a cat."

"What kind of cat? A cat owl?"

"A tiger cat?"

"No. Just a cat," Allison answers. 

"That's very strange," Matt observes and Neil nods in agreement. The cat is far away but seems to be staring right back at him, Neil doesn’t really know what to think of the animal.

“Sometimes cats come into the house,” Allison comments. Matt immediately turns to her looking alarmed so she adds “don’t worry, as long as you don’t step on them, they’re harmless.”

“What happens if you step on them?” Matt asks, glancing at the small animal one more time.

Allison grins and resumes walking. Matt is quick to follow her, asking more questions about the cat. Neil isn’t sure how dangerous such a small animal can be, he glances at the animal one more time before following the others back to the house and finds it licking it's paw, looking as threatening as a baby duck turtle.

***

Later that day, Neil enters the bedroom and finds Andrew reading a book in bed. On top of his bag, he sees the pants Allison gave him, already cut and sewn. He thanks Andrew, who just ignores him entirely so Neil grabs his bag and enters the bathroom to take a quick shower. Once he’s finished he returns to the bedroom and moves to the opposite side of the bed of Andrew and sits down on the floor in the corner of the room. He feels exhausted so he starts to untie his sleeping bag from the bag, feeling ready to finally sleep a whole night. “Pass me a pillow,” he asks Andrew.

After a few seconds with no response Neil looks up and he finds Andrew staring at him.

“You don’t have to sleep on the floor.”

Neil shrugs. “I don’t mind,” He's slept in far worse conditions after all. “I know you like your space.”

Andrew closes his book and puts it down. He seems to take a moment to gather his thoughts before he speaks again. “This is a really big bed,” he points out. He grabs a few pillows and puts them in the middle of the bed to create a division. “Left side is yours.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“Shut up,” Andrew picks his book up again. “Just give me a few minutes to finish this chapter and I’ll turn down the light.”

Neil gets into the bed and the moment his head meets the pillow he’s asleep.

Hours later, the sun is just starting to rise when Neil suddenly awakes in a cold sweat. He immediately looks around the room to check where he is. After a few minutes trying to calm himself down, he rolls to the side to try to find a better position to get back to sleep but it’s no use, all his brain can think about is his father, and how close Lola had been to catching him and the others.

Neil knows he’s running out of time. He needs to master all four elements before the comet arrives so that he can have a chance at defeating his father once and for all. 

At the farm, Kevin helped him get back into shape and helped him with his firebending. Wymack started to teach him airbending and as soon as Dan discovered he was the avatar they started to train waterbending and he was getting the hang of it too. But there’s still one other element that he needs to learn. And there’s just one person that can help him with it. 

Neil sits up on the bed and stares at Andrew still sleeping at his side. It’s time for Andrew to start teaching him how to earthbend.

Neil gets up and goes for a run around the beach to clear his head, he keeps a constant eye on his surroundings to make sure no one is close by as he runs and no ships appear on the horizon. When he returns, he helps Dan and Matt catch some fish in the sea, he's becoming more and more used to waterbending. However, the fishing soon turns into a competition to see who can catch more fish and Neil despite being really good already, doesn't quite have their practice and soon they out best him with some smooth motions that catch several fish at once.

He sees Andrew appear on the beach, who exchanges a few words with Renee sitting beneath a tree reading, before he moves to the middle of the beach and bends the sand to create a massive rock formation that he’s quick to jump to the top of and sit down on. As if sensing Neil, he looks straight at him. They stare at each other and after a moment Neil looks away. There's no point delaying what needs to be done so with a swift motion with his hands he gets the water to send him back to shore. 

He takes a deep breath and begins to walk towards Andrew. As he comes to a stop in front of Andrew, Neil clenches his fists and looks up. “I need you to teach me earthbending,” Neil tells him decidedly.

Andrew contemplates him for a moment. “What makes you think I'll say yes?” 

Neil doesn’t bother reminding Andrew why they’re here and why he needs to master all four elements as soon as possible, Andrew already knows all of this so he waits for Andrew’s final response.

All of a sudden, Andrew jumps to the ground mere inches away from Neil and after a second he tilts his head. “You didn’t budge,” he comments, “good.”

Neil doesn’t really know what to say to that, but it seems that Andrew wasn’t expecting an answer because he moves past Neil and starts to walk away.

“Come on, let's get deeper in the island, where there’s no sand beneath our feet.”

Once Andrew seems satisfied with their location he stops and faces Neil. “Let’s just tap into your earthbending so that we can actually start training,” he creates two big walls on either side of them and walks further away from Neil. 

Neil looks around, unsure what those are for. He turns to face Andrew and he’s about to open his mouth and ask why he needs the walls up when Andrew covers his entire body with rock like an armour.

“Stand your ground,” Andrew instructs and he moves fast in Neil’s direction.

Neil takes a second to realize what Andrew means by that but he plants his feet firmly on the floor and puts his hands forward just in time for Andrew to crash into him. 

Neil is pushed back several feet and he has no idea how to stop Andrew. He’s not sure how long they stay like this, Andrew pushing him further and further back and Neil trying and failing to figure out how to actually push back but he feels the sweat dripping on his face when Andrew speaks again.

“Come on, push me back,” Andrew tells him, and pretends to yawn. “I thought you should know by now how to bend a new element.” 

Neil feels his cheeks get even hotter. Is Andrew mocking him? He meets Andrew’s eyes and gives him the only response he feels like he deserves. “Fuck you.”

Andrew ignores his response. “Focus on the earth surrounding me,” he says and Neil tries, he can feel it underneath his hands where he’s trying so damn hard to push him back but all that’s happening is Andrew pushing him further and further away from where they started. They’re almost at the end of the walls that Andrew had created when one of Neil’s feet hits the root of a tree and he falls back.

Andrew immediately stops. “Okay?”

Neil slowly gets up and tries to catch his breath. “I’m fine,” he answers, slightly embarrassed and annoyed at himself for having tripped.

Neil studies Andrew and without really thinking he slams into Andrew and this time he budges. Neil starts to move him, inch by inch and when he starts to push him further back with ease, Andrew starts to push back.

“If all you needed was to trip on a hole I could have arranged that earlier.”

Neil stops pushing him. “You’re not funny.”

“It’s interesting to know that you’re lying.”

Neil decides not to answer and throws himself onto the floor exhausted.

Andrew lets his armour drop onto the floor. “Alright get up, let's start with learning how to throw a rock to attack.”

Neil, still on the floor glares at him. Is he serious? Neil still has his arms sore from bending water from their trip and after trying to figure out how to use his earthbending to actually manage to push Andrew back he’s really starting to feel his body complain.

“The hard part was to figure out how to make you use earthbending. Let's just try this one and meet the others for lunch.” Andrew adds, as if he can read what’s on Neil’s mind.

Neil nods and slowly gets up, all he wants is to stay where he is on the floor but Andrew’s right. He wants to end their first practice together knowing how to actually do something with earthbending.

***

Everyday that passes, Neil trains his bending from dusk till dawn. Usually after his morning run he trains his airbending and meets Dan at the beach. Dan insists that while he should master all the elements one by one, he also needs to learn to use them all together without a thought. So Matt and Dan sometimes team up against Neil to let him use all the elements to defend himself. Usually that brings the others to the beach to watch the match and occasionally they bet on the outcome.

During the afternoon, Neil trains with Andrew. In a matter of a few days, they move from forms to fighting techniques. Andrew doesn’t give him a minute to rest and at the end of each session with him, Neil is always exhausted to the point that they usually sit down in silence while Neil rests for a couple of minutes.

Neil stares at the clouds and the palm trees swinging above them while he catches his breath. “I’ve been thinking,” he says and turns to the side to face Andrew lying on the floor next to him.

Andrew turns his head to the side to face him. “That’s dangerous.”

“I want to go to crescent island.”

“What for?”

“There’s a temple for the avatar in there,” he begins to explain, “if there’s a place for me to talk to one of my ancestors that’s gonna be it.”

“There’s also a chance that that’s going to be a risky trip further into the fire nation for nothing.”

Andrew gets up and Neil does the same. “It’s worth a shot,” Neil insists.

“I know,” Andrew says, and Neil is surprised to notice that Andrew doesn’t sound very pleased about it.

They slowly walk back to the house and during dinner, Neil manages to convince the others about the trip to the temple. Allison shows them on the map where the crescent island is and they start to prepare for the trip.

Days later, Andrew retrieves the ship and they travel towards the island. It takes them the whole night to get there, and they barely manage to reach the island undetected by the thick fog they created for cover. It almost made them run into another ship but luckily they hear the soldiers laughing, way before they can see them so they manage to change direction just in time. 

They manage to reach the island but they see a flame in the distance coming in their direction so Andrew is quick to hide their ship beneath the sand and they follow Dan into the water, where she creates a giant bubble that allows them to stay hidden underneath the water while they wait several minutes for the guards walking around the shore on patrol to move away. Eventually they manage to venture into the woods and find a secluded location to set a temporary camp a few miles away from the temple.

Neil can see that everyone is on edge, he knows that it was a risk to come here. He knows that his father might have told the soldiers or the fire sages to capture him if they see him on the island. It’s a risk he’s willing to take alone, but he doesn’t want to put the rest of them in more danger. They’ve made it this far but they don’t have to go all the way to the temple together. 

Neil takes a deep breath and informs them that he’s going to the temple alone. Everyone immediately begins to protest that that wasn’t the deal but Neil replies that they’re too many and are easily spotted in such a big group. No one seems convinced to let him go alone at first but Andrew declares that he’s going with Neil. Neil opens his mouth to protest but Andrew arches his eyebrow as if daring him to try to fight him and Neil decides to save his energy.

Neil gets up and begins to walk towards the temple. Andrew soon appears at his side and they walk in silence the rest of the way. As they get closer to the temple they’re careful to avoid the fire sages coming out of the temple. They follow one they see coming into the temple to see what they need to do to get in. 

Neil unlocks the opening on the floor with fire, just like they saw the fire sage doing. They climb down the stairs and walk around the temple for a while. Neil isn’t sure what he’s looking for and even starts to question his plan after passing several doors that he’s sure they’ve seen already. But then he sees a massive door at the end of a hallway with barely any light and he immediately stops. He shares a look with Andrew before advancing towards the door.

Neil inspects the details in the door and just like they saw the fire sage use his bending to allow him to enter the temple, Neil uses his bending to open the sealed door too. The massive door slowly opens revealing an enormous room. Neil steps into the room and looks around, everywhere he looks there’s rows of statues. Somehow all the statues seem familiar to him. He walks to the middle of the room and inspects the statue that seems to be the last one added to the line. Neil quickly recognizes the avatar. “This is avatar Kyoshi,” Neil says and Andrew stops at his side to have a look at her.

Andrew walks to the statue at their side and then says. “Water,” he then points to the statue next to it. “Air.”

Neil nods and stares at Kyoshi again. “My past lives,” he states. It’s hard to imagine that he’s really part of the avatar cycle, that all his past lives are here. And for some reason, he can’t take his eyes off from her statue, it’s like it’s calling to him. Neil decides to sit down on the floor and take a deep breath. He tries to focus his mind like Wymack taught him to meditate while he stares at Kyoshi’s statue, he takes another deep breath and closes his eyes.

He focuses on his breathing and the energy around him. It takes a few moments but then he feels like he’s opening his eyes but everything is dark around him and a figure appears sitting in front of him as if made of smoke.

“Avatar Kyoshi,” he says, barely believing that this actually worked. “I need your guidance. I don’t have much time before the comet arrives and my father starts a war with the other nations but I’m not sure that I’m ready to face him.”

“In my time, Chin the Conqueror threatened to throw the World out of balance. I stopped him and the world entered a great era of peace,” she pauses for a moment, “If I hadn’t stopped him then, the world as you know it would be completely different.”

“But how did you know you were ready to face him?”

“I didn’t. But I assure you, I would have done whatever it took to stop Chin.”

“The problem is that I can't enter the avatar state and I don’t think I’m going to have a chance without it. How do I--” All of a sudden Neil feels an intense pain on his arm. The urge to scream in pain is almost too much to handle and he feels his control slipping away.

The image of Kyoshi starts to disappear. “I offer you this wisdom, avatar Neil. You must accept who you are in order to reach your full potential,” she tells him just before she disappears. 

He knows there’s something wrong where his physical body is so when Neil opens his eyes he immediately looks around but there’s walls around him that Andrew must have created so Neil takes them down to see what’s happening. Andrew’s back is to him and he’s defending fire being shot at him left, right and center.

Neil only spares a glance at his arm, freshly burned near where his old burn from his father is and tries to ignore the pain before he quickly jumps next to Andrew and immediately begins to throw fire to try to stop their attackers from coming closer.

Neil sends several fire blasts and immediately blocks the fire being thrown at him. He switches places with Andrew to block the fire thrown in his direction and let Andrew attack right after. There’s not a moment to breathe as more soldiers continue to enter the room.

Blue fire is shot at him, which he easily blocks. What troubles him is the color of the fire. There’s only one person he ever heard of having the color of blue flames. And sure enough, he recognizes the figure that just entered the room. 

He stares at Riko on the other side of the room, staring coldly back at him. It’s been years since he last saw him but he’s always been good at memorizing faces. More blue flames come flying in his direction but Neil manages to block them. Riko is merciless with his attacks, giving them no rest and because they’re severely outnumbered, the soldiers start to move closer.

“You just couldn’t help yourself and come here, so predictable” Riko sneers.

Neil curses under his breath. He knew that coming was a risk, but he wasn’t expecting to meet Riko and what he assumes to be the other Ravens. All he can focus on right now is that they need to leave this room, but to leave they have to pass Riko in the entrance. 

They continue to fight, fire is thrown in every direction and Andrew starts to try to pin the Ravens to the floor in order to give them some time to breathe and less opponents to focus on at the same time.

Neil and Andrew fight back to back, neither refusing to back down, and managing to keep their opponents at bay. But then, Neil sees Riko smirk, and he sends a signal to one of his men and Neil looks to see to whom Riko is communicating with. The soldier is quick to blow some kind of instrument, and the next thing he knows small darts fly in their direction. 

He’s quick to turn around and throw them away from them with a swift arm movement. But the second he turns, the air starts to smell different and the next thing he knows is the pain all over his body. He sees the light reflecting on the walls of the temple and he knows he has been hit with Riko's lightning. Then, just as quickly as it came, the lightning goes away and Neil drops to the floor convulsing.

He blinks to try to stay awake, but the pain is almost unbearable. Andrew turns in his direction, a shocked expression on his face. And then he sees the darts flying again, one hitting Andrew on his arm. Andrew is quick to remove it and retaliate fiercely at their opponents before he turns to Neil again for a brief moment and starts to make walls to shield them both. 

Neil starts to drift away and the last thing he sees is Andrew dropping onto the floor next to him.


	9. Chapter 9

##  **Book 3: Earth**

### Chapter 2: Captive

The first thing Neil registers when he comes back to consciousness is the pain on his back. He winces and slowly opens his eyes.

“Dan! He’s awake!” Nicky screams at his side, startling Neil who turns to the side to look at Nicky but he only manages to see his back as he disappears through the door. 

Seconds pass and Neil starts to feel more awake, he remembers his fight with Riko and all of a sudden nothing's really making sense. What’s Nicky doing here, and Dan? Did Riko capture all of them? He takes a look around and sees several bags shoved in a corner of the room that look familiar, and then he looks back at the door Nicky just left wide open. As far as he can see there's no guards stationed outside his door, so the idea that they were all captured doesn't make sense.

As soon as Dan comes inside, Neil clears his throat and asks, “What happened?” and tries to sit down.

“Don’t move,” Dan orders and Neil lays down again. She sits down in the chair near his bed and takes a deep breath, “I was beginning to worry that you wouldn’t wake up.”

“How long was I out?” Neil asks, then he remembers what happened just before he lost consciousness and fear comes crashing into him. “Where’s Andrew?”

Dan looks away from him and Neil feels the panic rise in him. “Dan, where is he?” he insists.

“He’s in Riko’s ship.”

Neil feels like he just got punched in the gut. “What?” Riko took Andrew and it was all his fault. Neil closes his eyes for a moment to try to control himself, he can feel the anger and panic building up. He opens his eyes a moment later, confusion settling in once again. Why did Riko take Andrew and not him? It didn’t make any sense. “Tell me everything from the beginning,” he asks Dan. He needs to focus, Andrew is trapped with Riko somewhere and he needs to get him out.

“We were waiting for you two to get back when we started to hear a lot of people shouting in the distance. Not long after that flashes of light appeared in the sky so we started to race to the temple,” she pauses for a moment, “but when we got there you were alone, unconscious on the floor, with a note stuck on the floor next to you.”

Neil frowns. “What did the note say?”

Dan reaches into her pocket and unfolds a piece of paper. She glances for a moment at Neil before reading. “You have something of mine, bring it back and I’ll return what’s yours,” she reads. “He's talking about Kevin, isn't he?”

“Yeah, he wants Kevin in exchange for Andrew. Like they're some kind of property to him, sick bastard,” Neil tightens his jaw, how could he have let his guard down and turn his back to Riko? If it hadn't been for him, they might have lasted long enough for the others to reach them. “And then?” Neil pushes, not wanting to waste any more time.

“Renee and Allison started to look around and they found some kind of darts on the floor. And then Renee said she would meet us back at camp and she took off. She only came back the next day saying that Andrew had been taken by Ravens into a ship.” Dan takes a deep breath and stares at her hands. “I tried to heal you as best as I could but-- we weren’t sure you’re going to wake up. You’ve been sleeping for almost two days.”

“I’m fine, Dan,” when she looks up he adds, “thank you.”

She gives him a weak smile and gets up. “I’m going to get you some food but then you need to rest,” she orders.

When Dan is almost out of the tent Neil calls her. “Dan, can you ask Renee to come over?”

Dan nods and leaves him alone. Neil tries to control the panic he’s feeling. Andrew is locked up, alone at the mercy of Riko without being able to use his bending to defend himself. He needs to get him out of there as soon as he can.

He sees a shadow approaching and takes a deep breath to calm down. Renee comes into view and stops at the entrance. “I’m glad you’re awake Neil,” she says with a soft smile, ”you asked to see me?”

“I need to get Andrew out of that ship,” he states, “I know you’ve been close to it, what can you tell me about it?”

“I can tell you a lot about it, I’ve been studying it ever since I knew where he was.”

“Oh,” Neil says, unsure what to reply to that.

Renee smiles and starts to walk away. “Don’t worry, Neil. We’re going to get him out.”

Neil nods and watches as Renee leaves and Dan enters the room right after with some food in her hands. She uses her healing to take away the pain from his back. After that she shows him the area of the burn he suffered on his arm. He can barely see any skin damage thanks to her healing but the burn on his back from where he was hit by Riko's lightning is definitely leaving a scar. Dan doesn't mention his other scars, he sees her eyes lingering on the worse ones but she doesn’t ask and he's thankful for it. When she leaves again, Neil feels exhausted and sleeps until the next day.

***

When he wakes up, he tells the others what happened in the temple. It takes him all morning to convince them that he's fine to stand and fight. Neil knows they're not really convinced but eventually they accept that he's not giving up and agree on rescuing Andrew that night so they start to make a rough plan with the information Renee gathered.

In the middle of the afternoon they all follow Renee to Riko's ship. They move slowly and carefully to make sure they avoid being spotted by his guards stationed outside. When they're close enough that they can see the ship Neil is suddenly shoved into a tree by Aaron. “I don’t care what you have to do, but you better get him out of there.”

Neil shoves him away. “I will.”

“And he better not be hurt or worse,” Aaron warns. Neil looks down, he knows what Aaron is thinking, but Riko needs Andrew alive if he wants to make the deal he proposed. Neil doesn't even allow himself to think about any other possibility. “Because if he is, it’s all your fault,” Aaron continues. Neil looks at Aaron, to his eyes that look just like Andrew's and he sees the anger and fear in Aaron's face and Neil has to look away again. He knows that whatever happens to Andrew in that ship, it's all his fault and he will never forgive himself for it.

“Aaron, stop,” Nicky interrupts him and comes to stand between them. “It’s not his fault.”

“Oh really? You sure? Because the way I see it, we never had psychopaths chasing us around before he arrived. Riko had no idea where Kevin was,” Aaron points at Neil. “This is all your fault,” he spats before turning around and storming in the direction of the ship.

“Don’t listen to him,” Nicky tells him, “he’s just worried.”

“He’s right though, since I came to the farm I really messed up your lives.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re the one to blame,” Renee points out, “you’re just trying to survive, like all of us.”

Neil nods, there’s nothing he can do about the past, all he can do now is try to fix things, starting by getting Andrew back.

They're in position, hiding near the ship, waiting for the sun to set when they hear the sirens go off and most guards stationed outside go running inside the ship.

Neil looks at Allison located at the top of the tree and when she notices him looking in her direction she gives him a shrug. He turns his attention back to the ship, it doesn't seem that the alarm went off because they've been spotted, so no one moves until they can understand what's happening.

Moments pass and Neil starts to get nervous about what could be happening inside the ship. But all of a sudden, a hole begins to form on the side of the ship and then two hands appear and make it bigger. Andrew tears a massive hole in the metal walls of the ship with his bare hands and jumps to the dock. Neil doesn't move, too stunned with what just happened in front of him. How on earth did Andrew make that hole? Did he just bend metal? 

Neil shares a confused look with Matt at his side and when he turns his attention back to the ship, a few other people not wearing any kind of uniforms are jumping out of the hole too, quickly followed by guards. They immediately begin to fight, fire thrown in every direction as the guards try to stop them from getting away. 

Neil jumps to his feet and starts to race in their direction. Andrew immediately spots him. They stare at each other for a second before Andrew jumps to the side of the ship, pulls a piece of metal from it to create a shield on his back and catapults himself in Neil's direction.

The rest of the guards stationed outside the ship move to try to stop them too and more start to attack from the upper part of the ship. Neil starts to shoot fire to give Andrew cover and blocks the fire directed at them.

He can feel Matt and Dan pulling a massive water front to their will so he helps them and the three of them push several of the guards into the water. Andrew stops by his side and starts to throw small metal balls at the guards heads with so much precision that the first two just drop to the floor unconscious.

Neil takes a moment to look around, Matt and Dan with their bending continue to send the guards into the water, and the ones that manage to escape are returning back to the ship. The ones still standing around are trying to dodge Allison's arrows. And Renee, Aaron and Nicky are blocking the entrance of the docking area. They’re side by side fighting half a dozen guards and clearing the path they’ll need to use to leave. Neil grins when he watches Nicky and Aaron easily disarm one guard and kick him together in the stomach to send him into the water.

Neil’s grin quickly vanishes when Riko appears at the top of the ship watching the fight. He looks pissed and Neil knows that it’s time for them to leave. Andrew’s already out of the ship, there’s no need to fight Riko today.

Neil looks around for a moment, trying to think of a way to slow down Riko from following them. He centers himself and focuses on a massive rock formation on their side, that looks like a two story building. He starts to lift it a few inches from the floor but he knows that he won’t be able to throw it with enough force to cause real havoc and maybe trap all the guards inside. “Andrew,” he calls but he doesn’t dare to lose his focus on what he’s doing to check if Andrew has heard him. But seconds later he feels the weight of the rock lifting away and getting higher from the ground so he knows that Andrew has joined him.

He turns as the rock moves to their will and follows Andrew as he moves. He hasn't been training with Andrew for that long but he’s good at following his lead. They move the rock higher and then as fast as they can, they throw it against the entrance at the top.

As the rock gets closer, the guards understand what is about to happen so the few still remaining outside start to run away to the inside of the ship or jump into the water. Riko sends lightning against the massive rock that manages to break it in two. But it’s too late to stop it so the two pieces still end up falling where Neil wanted. A cloud of dust immediately forms after the impact and he can’t see much about the ship. He hopes that Riko got hit by one of the rocks, but he doubts Riko will be that easily killed. Still, his ship won’t go anywhere in this condition so they immediately start to run away.

They run as fast as they can into the woods. His back is killing him from all the effort but he tries to ignore it as best as he can and doesn't say a word about it, they have bigger concerns at the moment. 

When they finally reach their ship, they jump into it and Neil, Dan and Matt bend the water as hard and fast as they can to get them out of there with a full cover of a thick fog.

Neil stops bending when they’re in high sea and Allison announces from the tower that she can’t see any ship for miles. His back is killing him and he really needs to stop for a moment so he turns around to the end of the ship. He sees Andrew and Renee talking quietly in the corner, he notices that Andrew has one of his armbands in his hand while Renee envelops his arm in a tissue and Neil starts to walk in their direction.

Andrew immediately shifts his focus from Renee to Neil as he approaches. Neil isn't sure if Andrew wants him to move closer or not but he continues to walk in their direction.

"What happened to your arm?" Neil asks when he stops only a step away from Andrew.

"I got burned."

"Should I call Dan?"

"No, she’s busy," Andrew answers.

At the same time that Renee replies "Andrew, doesn't want to," then Renee stops what she’s doing and looks up at Andrew. "What if it's Neil?"

"Me?" They both look up at him and after a moment when Andrew doesn't say no, Neil adds, "I've never really done it before." Dan explained to him the idea behind it but he has never used it.

"I'm sure you can do it," Renee says and gets up. "I'll leave you two to it."

"I can't guarantee that I can heal you."

Andrew nods in understanding so Neil pulls water from Dan's water pouch. She looks back to see what's happening but Neil just shakes his head to let her know that everything is fine.

He sits down in front of Andrew and puts his hands up, water around his hands. "Can I?"

Andrew pulls Renee tissue away. "Go ahead."

Neil moves so that his hands are just above Andrew's arm and lets the water envelop his arm. Neil takes a deep breath and focuses. Then his hands start to glow and he moves his hands just like Dan taught him. When he pulls the water away from Andrew’s arm the small burn is no longer there.

Neil looks up and examines Andrew's face, there's a cut on his cheek with a bruise forming around it. Neil moves his hand up and stops just an inch away from touching him. Andrew gives him a short nod, giving him permission to continue so Neil moves two fingers forward to touch his face so that he can guide the water where he wants to. "What happened?" he asks, as Andrew’s cheek starts to glow from the water.

"Riko wanted answers. I told him to fuck off."

Neil moves his hand away and throws the water overboard. "So he hit you?" He clenches his fists and stares at Andrew. Riko’s going to pay, he’s going to make sure of it.

Andrew opens his mouth but doesn't say a word. Neil notices him looking over his shoulder and turns to look too. He sees everyone glancing at them. "Talk later?" Neil proposes and Andrew gives him a short nod so Neil gets up and can’t help but wince from the movement. 

“Dan, have a look at Neil,” Andrew says, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Dan quickly turns, looking worried at Neil. “Is it your back?”

“I’m fine,” Neil starts to say, but everyone turns to look at him and he sighs, "my back is hurting, that's all."

Dan stops bending and focuses on him. "Another healing session should help," she pulls water from her water pouch and the water starts to glow in her hands. Neil turns his back to her and moments later the pain starts to go away. He thanks her and they both get back to work on putting as much distance from Ember Island as they can.

When they reach Allison's Island, Andrew hides the ship once again, and everyone starts to move back to the house.

Neil starts to follow them but when he notices that Andrew isn't moving, instead he's just staring at the ocean surrounding them, Neil walks to his side.

He isn’t sure how long they stay there staring at the ocean, but eventually Neil turns to stare at Andrew's profile. He was so afraid that they weren’t going to be able to get him back. Riko could have killed him if he wanted to. 

“Stop staring.”

Neil looks away. He’s just not sure where to start. “How did you bend that metal?” Neil eventually asks. He didn't even know that metal was something that could be manipulated.

Andrew ignores his question. “What were you doing there?”

“What do you mean?” Andrew just turns to face him so Neil adds, “Riko, he--” he stops mid sentence.

“You should have left that island.”

“Well, I didn’t. I came--we came to get you out,” he finishes and looks at Andrew. Andrew had been there for him, fought by his side, and fought to protect him when Neil couldn't and Riko had captured him because of it. After everything they’ve been through, Neil could never have just abandoned him in there.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Andrew tells him.

“I--” Neil starts, but suddenly Andrew’s mouth is on his and he forgets what he was about to say. Andrew is kissing him with such hunger that the thought of how someone who says they don't care about anything can kiss like that crosses Neil's mind and then, just as quickly, Andrew steps away.

“Yes or no to this, Neil?”

“Yes,” he quickly answers and locks their mouths together once again.


	10. Chapter 10

##  **Book 3: Earth**

### Chapter 3: The Calm Before the Storm

Neil watches amused as Andrew proceeds to throw another piece of fish out on the balcony. They both stare as the cat walks to the new piece of food and immediately begins to eat it. 

Neil remembers the first time Andrew saw the cat, he wasn't sure what it was but at the time Andrew was eating his lunch on their balcony, so he threw a bit of fish in the animal's direction just to see if he would eat it. The cat sniffed the food for the longest time, unsure if it was safe to eat or not. Eventually he deemed it safe and ran away with the piece of fish in his mouth. Now after repeatedly giving him food, the cat seems to trust them and eats just a few feet from them, on the other side of their balcony. 

Neil’s pretty sure that the cat can find food on it’s own. He was already on the island before they arrived after all, but the animal is interesting to look at and when he lazily lays down on the grass all stretched out he reminds him of Andrew when he lays down on the beach and watches Neil and the others practice in the morning, so Neil keeps saving bits of his lunch to give to the animal too.

“I see something in the sky approaching!” they hear Matt shout in the distance. Neil immediately stiffens and shares a look with Andrew before walking out of the room. Andrew follows him and when they arrive at the front of the house everyone is already there, looking at the sky.

“It has to be them,” Dan says grinning.

“Yeah,” Neil answers, it’s not like they’re expecting any other bison to land on this particular island. Neil can’t help but tense as the bison gets closer. They're coming back to tell him how much time he has left before he has to face his father. 

It doesn’t take long for the bison to land on the beach. Kevin immediately jumps into the sand and everyone moves closer, while Wymack helps Abby to get down. Neil walks towards them and a man he doesn’t know jumps into the sand next to Kevin.

Nicky immediately screams and runs towards the man, they both fall into the sand but they don't seem to mind it. They keep smiling and laughing, holding on to each other and then they start to kiss passionately and Neil has to look away.

“We ran into Erik and he wanted to join us,” Wymack says, stopping at Neil’s side. He heard about Erik before, he’s Nicky’s boyfriend, the one that Andrew mentioned also being an earthbender. 

Abby looks around. “I’m glad to see that everyone is alright.”

Neil nods. They had a little problem days ago, but he’s sure the others will tell them the whole story soon. “How long until the comet?” He asks, not wanting to delay it any further.

Wymack shares a look with Abby before he answers. “Less than two weeks.”

Neil nods and begins to walk away towards the house. He clenches his fists and tries to take deep breaths. He has less than two weeks to defeat his father or he’ll start a war. He’s not ready, he needs more time to master all the elements. If he fails, the world--

“Neil?” Matt calls.

Neil turns back and everyone is staring back at him.

“What’s the plan?” Kevin asks.

“I--I don’t know. We’ve had other problems to focus on while you were gone.”

“What happened?”

“I’ll fill you all in, later,” Dan promises.

“I thought the plan was set,” Allison says, “we go after your father before the comet.”

Neil nods. “It is,” Allison’s right, nothing changed. “We need to figure out where to find him, I don't think he'll be home if the war he’s been planning is this close to happening.”

“I think I know where he might be,” Kevin says, “on our way here we saw several ships in a deserted island, it’s one of the closest to the earth nation territory.”

“That could be him,” Neil agrees, “but we need to make sure that he’s there.”

“We can take Blue and have a look,” Wymack offers.

“Okay,” Neil agrees.

Wymack shakes his head. “Not you.”

“Why not?”

"Someone might recognize you. In case something happens I don’t want you to have to face him when you’re not mentally prepared to do it. Dan can come with me.”

Dan nods. “Besides, Neil still needs to let his back recover. The problem is how will we know who he is?”

“Try to look for who’s in charge, and see if the answer is Admiral Wesninski. We have the same hair color and eyes, it's hard to miss.”

“I think I should go too. I can infiltrate one of the ships as one of the guards and blend in,” Renee offers.

“Okay, sounds like a plan,” Wymack says, sounding satisfied, “Dan will give us cover to reach the island undetected and Renee will infiltrate one of the ships to figure out who’s in charge. As soon as we have a confirmation we return.”

“Okay great, now that that’s all sorted there’s someone I want you to meet,” Nicky says with a big smile.

“We already met Erik last year,” Allison points out.

“Not you,” Nicky dismisses her. “Neil wasn’t here last summer,” he says and steps closer to Neil pulling Erik by his hand to follow him. Erik begins to grin and lets himself be pulled. “Neil, I want you to meet Erik, my boyfriend,” Nicky glances to his side as he says the last word, they share a fond smile before turning to look at Neil.

“Hi,” Erik says, “I came to help however I can.”

“Good,” Neil says, “we’re going to need it.” Erik nods, looking more serious.

Dan and Wymack start talking about the supplies they should take and they ask Andrew to bring their ship back to surface so that they can go over the soldiers inventory left in it. Neil stares as they plan the whole thing, not knowing what to say. He doesn’t like the plan at all. It’s a risky plan where the odds of getting caught are high. He should be the one going, but Wymack is right, he’d probably get recognized so he hopes that they don’t get caught and come back safely.

***

Neil wakes up when the sun is just about to rise, he knows it’s pointless to try to get back to sleep so he slowly gets out of bed, trying not to wake Andrew up and goes to the kitchen.

Abby is there with Matt. They’re talking quietly by the window and Neil stops at the door, not wanting to interrupt them. But Matt notices him right away and gives him a weak smile so Neil enters the room.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Matt questions.

Neil shakes his head and steps into the kitchen. "Did they leave already?"

"They just did," Matt nods towards the window. 

Neil comes closer and he can see a small dot in the sky getting smaller and smaller, they watch it in silence until it completely disappears in the sky. When Neil turns, he sees the concern in Matt’s face. “They won’t be detected,” Neil reassures him. “But if they do, they’re surrounded by water, they’ll regret fighting Dan.”

Matt straightens up. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, man.”

Abby puts a hand on Matt’s shoulder. “They’ll come back soon enough,” she says before turning to Neil. "Dan said you’re ready for me to share more advanced waterbending techniques with you.”

"Oh yes, let's do it!" Matt says, looking excited.

"That'd be great," Neil replies. Neil hasn’t talked much with Abby on the farm, what he knows about her is what the others have told him, but he knows she’s a master waterbender and he can’t wait to learn whatever she wants to teach him.

Neil follows her out of the house but he’s confused when Abby turns to go further into the island, instead of walking closer to water. He looks at Matt who shakes his head and says, “Just wait.”

Moments later, Abby stops and turns to face them. “Waterbenders sometimes need to face the challenge of not having water nearby to bend. What I’m going to teach you today is how to control water wherever it exists,” Abby extends one arm and moves in a circle collecting the moisture in the air. “Did you know that you can pull water out of thin air?”

Neil is in awe. He has never seen a waterbender do this before. “I want to try,” Neil takes a deep breath to focus and does the same movement Abby just did, and sure enough water collects in his hand. He grins at both of them.

“I told you he was good,” Matt says proudly.

“I never doubted that,” Abby smiles for a moment before she continues, “now, the water isn’t just in the air, it’s in the plants, the trees, all living things are filled with water.” She waves her arms in a large circle, bending the water out of a tree and the grass around them turns dry and dark.

“We only really resort to this in case of real danger, there’s no need to kill trees for no reason,” Matt says, looking sad at the now dead tree at his side.

Neil nods, but all he can think about is how he never really thought about waterbending without a direct source of water before and how Andrew figured out a way to bend metal. There’s still so much that he doesn’t know about all the elements.

***

Later that day, Neil pulls Kevin aside.

“I’ve found something that’s yours,” Neil says and takes the notebook out of his pocket. “I found it on the ground right after Lola’s attack.”

Kevin carefully grabs the notebook with both hands and sits down on the sand. “I thought I had lost it,” he opens it and studies it for a moment. “This-- this was my mother’s, so thank you for giving it back.”

Neil doesn’t know what to say so he sits down next to Kevin. “Andrew made it seem like the notebook was important, so I kept it.”

“Did he tell you what’s inside?”

“No.”

Kevin doesn’t seem surprised. “It’s an idea that my mother started to work on with my father, to make a bending competition with teams with different types of benders.

“It’s almost complete now. We’ve been going over the rules for a while. To make it fair for everyone no matter their element. But if it wasn’t for Wymack starting this idea with her I don’t know if I could finish it by myself.”

“Wait,” Neil looks at Kevin surprised. “Wymack is your father?”

Kevin looks to the side confused. “I thought you knew.”

“No, I didn’t. No one told me and you never call him dad or father.”

“That’s because I only met him recently. When I was at the Ravens I found this notebook together with some old letters from Wymack shoved inside. It was clear enough by the content that they had been together, and that he was my father. So I ran away to find him.”

“How did they meet?”

“They both travelled to the north pole and met there. They enjoyed watching waterbenders practice and eventually started the idea for the competition.”

Neil perks up, if it’s anything like practicing his bending with the others, he’s sure he would enjoy it. ”How would that work out?”

It’s all the incentive Kevin needs to proceed to explain everything to him, showing him a few pages of the book, the ring format, how the points system would work, the penalties. Once Kevin is done explaining all the rules to Neil, he becomes quiet for a moment. “There's something you should know before you face Riko again.”

“What is it?”

“How to redirect lightning,” Kevin gets up and Neil does the same. “If you let the energy in your own body flow,” Kevin starts, he stretches his left arm out and the fingers on his right hand touch the fingers on his left hand and traces a path down his arm, shoulder, stomach and back out the other side. “The lightning will follow it and you turn your opponent's energy against them.”

Neil copies Kevin’s movement a few times. “It’s similar to waterbending,” he comments.

Kevin stops moving and turns to the ocean. “That’s because my parents invented this technique by studying waterbenders.”

“Have you ever used it?”

“No. But my mother did, once. And it worked.”

“Was Wymack the one that taught you?”

Kevin nods. “I wasn’t ready to face Riko when I was with the Ravens but if Riko comes after me again, I’ll be ready. And so will you.”

***

That night, Neil can’t sleep so he decides to get up to the balcony to get some fresh air. He’s careful not to make any noise but it doesn’t take long for him to hear Andrew’s footsteps following him.

Andrew stops at his side and they both stare at the vast ocean that he can see in between the trees. “Can’t sleep?”

“Yeah,” Neil states and glances at Andrew's profile before adding, “All I keep thinking about is what will happen when I face him. What if I’m not ready yet?”

“You don’t have to face him now.”

“You know I do.”

“No, you don’t. You can face him later, whenever you feel ready.”

“I don’t have time Andrew, you know I have to face him now or--”

“Or what?” 

“He will start a war, people will die.”

“People die everyday, I don’t see why you have to be the one to risk your neck to stop it.”

“I’m the Avatar, it’s my destiny.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“Not to me. You know, when we were in the temple, Kyoshi told me to accept who I'm supposed to be and I think that this is it. I’m the Avatar, this is my problem and I have to deal with it. I can use my power to stop people like him who abuse the power they already have.”

“If that’s what you want.”

“It is,” Neil firmly says.

Andrew nods, seeming satisfied with his answer and takes a step closer to Neil. He slowly moves his hands up and holds Neil’s chin. “Stop worrying. Take it a day at a time and right now what you need is to get some sleep.”

Neil closes his eyes for a moment. It’s been really hard to fall asleep lately. He’s been feeling so stressed but Andrew’s advice makes him feel less overwhelmed. He does need to sleep or he won’t function properly. It seems like he's been running on autopilot since they arrived at the island: eat, train, and repeat it all over again. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

Andrew lets go of him, and Neil immediately opens his eyes. He catches Andrew staring at his lips for a second right before he looks up to meet Neil’s eyes. They stare at each other for a moment longer before Andrew decides to take a step back. “Come on, let's go to bed.”

“Wait,” Neil says, he takes a step forward and puts his hand up just an inch away from Andrew’s face. “Can I?” he asks, just staring at Andrew’s mouth.

Andrew answers a firm “yes,” and Neil grabs him by the neck and closes the space between them.

Neil kisses him hard, one hand immediately going up to grab ahold of Andrew’s hair and Andrew kisses him back just as fiercely. He puts one arm around Neil’s waist and turns him so that he can push him back to the wall and immediately presses his body against Neil. 

Neil’s heart is racing a mile a minute, and he’s sure that Andrew can feel it too. When they break apart for air, Neil takes the opportunity to pull at Andrew’s hair just enough for him to turn to the side for Neil to trace kisses down his neck.

Andrew swears, so low that if he wasn’t speaking right near his ear Neil wouldn’t have caught it and he can’t help but grin. Then, Andrew grabs his face with one hand and makes him turn so that their mouths can meet again. This time, Andrew slows down the kiss. He seems to be taking his time kissing back, savoring every kiss, memorizing every inch of Neil while his other hand travels beneath Neil’s shirt, leaving goosebumps on Neil’s skin wherever his hand runs by.

If it was up to Neil, they would stay like this forever and never move again.

***

Morning comes, Neil slowly turns to the side and lets the sunlight coming from the window wake him up. He moves closer to the middle of the bed and lets his face rest in the pillows separating his side of the bed from Andrew’s.

He studies Andrew's sleeping form for a moment. He looks so peaceful when he's asleep.

"What," Andrew says, barely a whisper, without even opening his eyes.

"Just checking if you’re awake."

"I’m awake now."

Neil grins. “Clearly."

Andrew opens one eye to look at Neil. "Is there something you need or can I go back to sleep?"

Neil opens his mouth to answer when the sound of a loud roar coming from outside starts. Neil's grin gets wider. “Well.”

“Ugh,” Andrew groans, “I hate you.”

Neil jumps out of the bed. “How is this any of my fault?” When Andrew doesn’t move or say anything else Neil pushes. “Come on.”

Andrew throws the covers away. “You’re insufferable.”

Neil leads the way to the front of the house. Immediately tensing up with each step he takes towards everyone around Blue on the beach.

“So?” he asks once he’s close enough. Neil immediately looks at each of them and releases a breath after seeing that none of them came back injured.

“He’s there,” Dan confirms.

“And so is Riko, and the rest of the Ravens,” Renee adds.

Everyone looks at Kevin who looks visibly tense at the imminent confrontation with Riko. “Let them be. Right now, let’s focus on coming up with a plan.”

They all sit down in the living room and try to come up with a plan of attack together. Neil isn’t sure their plan will work how they want it to, but in the end it doesn’t matter. He needs to get to that island, find his father and defeat him at all cost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed this chapter, please consider leaving a like or a comment, I'd really appreciate it!
> 
> You can find me on tumblr [@wematch ](http://wematch.tumblr.com)  
Can't believe there's only one more chapter to go!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah yes, life got in the way... but here it is, the final chapter!   
I've added some new tags regarding this chapter but if you don't want any spoilers just don't look up ;)

##  **Book 3: Earth**

###  Chapter 3: Lightning

Wymack opens the door of the ship and steps outside. Neil immediately looks away from Andrew and Aaron talking quietly at the end of the ship.

“It’s time,” Wymack declares.

Neil immediately tenses. He stands up and looks around at their group as he walks towards Blue. He thinks about saying something but he doesn’t really know what to say. They’re about to walk into enemy territory, to fight Nathan and hopefully stop a war from happening. There’s no guarantee that this is going to end well, that they’ll live to fight another day. He looks around for a moment at everyone. “Thank you,” he manages to say.

Matt hugs him and Neil lets him. “Be careful, okay buddy?” Matt says, when he finally lets go of him.

“You too,” Neil answers, right before Allison and Dan both hug him at the same time.

“We’ve got this,” Dan reassures him. Neil nods once again and climbs the bison, closely followed by Andrew.

"We'll see you soon," Wymack promises, before shouting "yip yip." They take off from the ship and fly up in the sky to blend in with the clouds. 

It’s all part of their plan to get Neil into the island undetected. They hope they can land the bison in the middle of the island at the same time the others reach it by sea. If it works, no one will see them coming.

Neil feels a knot in his stomach as they continue to fly. He hates the idea of being separated from the others, he just has an uneasy feeling about it but he tries to stick to the plan so he just focuses on bending the clouds around Blue so that they aren’t spotted. They can still see in between the clouds to know where their ship is but whoever looks up won't be able to spot them from afar.

When the island appears on the horizon, they can see several ships near it. It doesn’t take long for a ship on patrol to intercept their ship as they get closer. They knew this could happen so everyone on top of the ship is disguised as fire nation soldiers with the uniforms that they found on the ship. Both ships stop parallel to each other and a bridge is lowered across the gap between the two. Neil can’t understand what is happening down there because of the clouds, but a horn is blown shortly after and Neil curses knowing that that sound can only mean one thing. 

He brings his arms up to clear the clouds away to be able to see what’s happening, but Andrew grabs his arm to stop him without saying a word, his other arm gripping tightly to the bison’s saddle.

“Neil, we have to stick to the plan,” Wymack reminds him, “our job is to get you on that island undetected.” 

Neil looks from Wymack to Andrew, and they begin to hear fireballs being shot from the distance. They all look down to see what’s happening. They hear the others shout instructions at one another right before they start to be under fire. Some fireballs miss the ship entirely and others are redirected by the benders to the water but one ends up hitting their ship. 

Andrew tightens his grip on Neil’s arm for a moment before he lets go. Neil hesitates for a moment before he clears the sky, knowing their whole plan is useless once he does it. He does it anyway. They need to help the others to reach the island too. He's not letting anyone get killed if he can help it.

The moment the sky clears around them he hears Wymack cursing but they all look down at the battle that’s been forming. Every ship on the island is attacking in their direction. Matt, Dan, Abby, Kevin and Erik are stopping the fireballs from reaching the ship but there’s too many attacks and they’re the only ones that can defend their ship until they reach the island. And if the waterbenders are all busy defending their ship, they can’t bend the ship to reach the island.

“Wymack, get me closer to them,” Neil says. Wymack stirs Blue in the direction of the ship and they start coming under fire too. He watches as Kevin attacks back, so that the fireballs stop before they even reach them. Dan, Abby and Matt focus on the ship closest to them, using waterbending to send the other ship away. He watches Dan jump into the water and when she resurfaces using water to be at the level of the ship she starts bending the water around the ship. Neil notices Matt and Abby also helping her to envelop the ship with water, seconds later the ship is completely frozen into a massive block of ice. It won’t hold them for long but it will give them enough time to move away.

They fly in the direction of the attacks to redirect them away from the ship so that the others can focus on their ship that is now on fire. Abby works on extinguishing the fire and Matt and Dan start to move the ship again in the direction of the island.

They fly ahead of their ship to provide some coverage and when they’re about to reach the island, Neil gets up and looks at Andrew. Since their plan is now useless, he might as well try and damage some of those ships, to ease the attacks against their ship until everyone else reaches the island. “No more running,” he says, right before jumping into the air. 

“I hate you,” Andrew shouts, before following Neil.

Neil takes a quick glance behind him as he falls and he can’t believe that Andrew just followed him. He grins. “You followed me,'' he shouts at Andrew just before blocking an attack coming in their direction. Immediately after, he pulls the water from the ocean to ease their fall.

Neil brings them up to the surface and creates an ice platform for them to step onto. He freezes both their feet in place and sends them as fast as he can to shore. They immediately start to be under fire but Neil has no problem in blocking the attacks with fire or water.

“Throw me to the ship,” Andrew tells him when they’re almost there.

Neil blocks an attack and avoids another and right after that he splits the ice, separating them and pushes Andrew forward. He sends him flying in the air and shatters the ice so that Andrew can land at the top of the ship.

The soldiers, clearly not expecting it, take a second to shift their attention to an opponent right on their ship, but it’s too late. The moment Andrew lands he covers himself with metal from the ship to protect himself and runs right in the direction of the catapult they’re using to shoot fireballs. He reaches it and just curves the metal so that it no longer works. Neil watches amazed as Andrew kicks a soldier that stops in his way, knocking him into the water before jumping off of the ship, attaching himself onto the side of the ship and creating a big opening where his hands pull at the metal. Neil thinks it’s one of the most amazing things he has ever seen.

The moment Andrew falls to the water Neil sends him in the direction of the other ship. Neil throws himself into the air, ready to follow him, when lightning strikes right where he was a second ago. Neil turns mid air just in time to see Riko propelling himself with his blue flame, allowing him to fly in Neil's direction.

Neil curses, it’s happening too soon, they should all be at the beach the moment he has to face his father and Riko was supposed to be Kevin’s fight. But with Wymack flying back to help their ship get here, the only two on the island are him and Andrew. It’s still going to take several minutes for their ship to reach shore so Neil has no choice but to face Riko.

“Go,” Andrew shouts and Neil doesn’t even have time to look back at Andrew before lightning is thrown in his direction once again and he has to dodge it. Andrew will have to take care of as many ships as he can until the others get here. 

Neil sends himself to shore and Riko follows him. Riko sends several blasts of blue flames and Neil creates a wall of fire to protect himself. The wall disappears and Riko lunges

forward, Neil sees a rock formation at his side and throws it at Riko, closely followed by a blast of fire. Riko manages to defend himself, kicking the rock to the side, but he is thrown to the floor by the impact. 

They keep battling, neither backing down, lightning meets fire, illuminating the beach with each attack they make. 

But at some point something changes and Riko gives him a cold grin. And a second later, fire is being thrown at Neil from every direction. Neil manages to turn just in time to use airbending to send him flying away to the nearest tree but another fireblast follows him so Neil jumps to another tree, another blast of fire is shot right after and he manages to block it but ends up being thrown against a different tree in the process.

The impact makes an explosion of pain on his back take his breath away. Neil opens his eyes and blinks twice to try to focus. He sees Riko walking in his direction, starting to call lightning again and Neil slowly tries to get back on his feet to defend himself.

Riko's about to shoot it at Neil when Kevin jumps in front of him, grabs Riko’s hand and redirects the lightning towards the sky. Kevin shoves Riko back, and Riko falls to the floor with an incredulous look on his face. 

“You’ll pay for that,” he spats right before he attacks Kevin. 

Neil jumps to his feet and puts his back to Kevin’s as they get surrounded by the Ravens. But none are attacking them, they’re all watching Kevin fight against Riko.

Neil watches sideways as the two of them battle, not wanting to put his back to the rest of the Ravens. Riko lunges forward with a fire kick that Kevin easily jumps to the side to avoid it. He immediately counterattacks with several fire punches that Riko runs away to avoid.

Andrew suddenly appears running their way, and he immediately starts attacking. The Ravens closest to him begin to fight back but Andrew creates a hole and three of them fall into it. Neil starts attacking too and Andrew comes to join him. They battle the remaining soldiers at the same time that Kevin fights Riko, and just when Neil thinks they have the advantage, his father appears.

“Look at you, Nathaniel," Nathan says with a cold voice, "fighting against your own kind, you're a disgrace,” he spats.

Neil completely freezes for a second. It's been years since he last saw him. It immediately reminds him of his mother and that he's the reason she's dead. Anger and hatred begin to overwhelm him. This man in front of him made his life a living hell from the moment he was born and now he wanted to start a war to expand his terror to the rest of the world. 

Neil stares at him and takes a fighting position. "I'm not afraid of you, not anymore."

"Is that right?" Nathan gives him a cold smile and attacks with several fire punches.

Neil defends himself and attacks back. He feels strong and more in control of himself since as long he can remember and doesn't let his emotions control him. Neil bends the air around himself and thrusts his palms out in a rapid movement. Nathan is thrown back violently by the air until he collides with a tree. When he gets up, he’s no longer grinning and Neil knows that they might have a good chance here.

"Do you know why I'm here?" Neil shoots at him.

"You're foolish to think you can stop me."

"We'll see," Neil kicks and sends a massive fire blast in his direction, quickly followed by several rocks fired in quick succession.

Nathan blocks the fire and tries to escape the rocks by running to the side.

At their side, Riko falls back when trying to avoid Kevin's attack. And before Kevin manages to attack again, Nathan cuts in to stop him.

"Get up," he hisses at Riko, looking furious.

Riko immediately jumps to his feet and begins to call a lightning, and builds it up to make it stronger. Neil shares a concerned look with Kevin but he just gives him a short firm nod, telling Neil that they can handle it.

Both continue to attack but Nathan keeps blocking them, guarding Riko. 

Then Nathan gets out of Riko’s way and Neil seems to see everything happen in slow motion. Riko points his fingers in his direction, he guides his other hand to direct the lightning to where his other arm is pointing at but at the last second Riko looks to Neil’s side. He sends him a cold grin and points his arm at Neil’s left. 

Neil follows the lightning’s movement and fear paralyzes him as he watches the lightning hit Andrew’s back. The lightning lasts several seconds, and when Andrew drops to the floor the lightning continues to light up his body.

Neil can’t seem to move, he stares at Andrew's unconscious body in front of him, not moving, with smoke coming out of him. He faintly hears Kevin call his name but he just can’t process what just happened. This was nothing like the time Neil had been hit with lightning, Riko had been building it up to be stronger and Andrew didn't even see it coming. Panic starts to settle, Andrew cannot be dead. He just can't. 

A burst of fire comes towards him but he easily blocks it. And he turns towards his attacker.

This is all Riko's fault he thinks as he sees him calling for lightning once again.

Neil closes his eyes. He used to fear being the avatar but this is a part of who he is and he’ll be damned if he doesn’t put an end to this today. He feels himself entering the avatar state. Only this time is different, he knows he can control it. 

Riko shoots the lightning in his direction this time but Neil easily blocks it with a massive wall of stone. Riko starts backing away using his blue flames to fly away and Neil chases him in between the trees. When he gets closer, Neil calls the ocean to him. He sends a massive wave against Riko that throws him against a cabin, knocking him down for a moment. Riko stands up and starts attacking with his blue flames, which Neil easily blocks. He uses water to grab Riko, enveloping the water all around him and pushing him hard against the cabin side.

Neil starts to move closer when a whip of fire destroys the hold he has on Riko. Neil looks to the side and sees Nathan flipping his whip around, preparing to attack again.

For the first time, Neil welcomes the link to all his past lives. He feels their presence and all the power available to him. He spent most of his life running away because his father wanted to use him as his pawn. But he is the Avatar, and his father will never be a match for him.

Nathan attacks with his whip and Neil blocks the fire with fire of his own. Nathan starts running in Neil’s direction, throwing fire punches. He spent countless lives learning to master all the elements and now he can see every move before it happens and how to block it. Neil begins to fight back using all the elements and his father begins to retreat. Step by step Nathan’s pushed closer to the cabin. Neil calls a wave to block an attack and in the corner of his eye he can see Riko getting up and he can sense the change in the air from the electric charge. And then lightning comes his way. He rises a wall of fire to shield himself and with water he throws his father and Riko against the building.

Just as quickly, his father sends a blast of fire his way. Neil uses air to block the fire and he feels Riko call for lightning once again. 

This time, Neil stares at Riko and when the lightning comes his way he doesn't move to stop it.

He feels the intense power of the lightning carrying through his body, he moves his arm and points towards Riko, redirecting the lightning just like Kevin had taught him and he pushes as much of his power into it as he can.

For a split second he sees confusion in Riko's face and then horror. The lightning hits him with so much force, Riko is thrown back closer to Nathan and just as quickly as Riko drops to the floor, so does Nathan. 

Neil watches confused for just a moment but the lightning still remaining on his father's body quickly makes him understand what happened. Riko fell on the water and the water conducted the lightning to Nathan, killing them both in the process.

Neil gets out of the avatar state and runs back to where Andrew is. Kevin is kneeling down with a Raven near him. But when Kevin notices Neil, he gets up and moves to block Neil’s path. "Neil," Kevin says with a sad voice and puts an arm up to try to stop him.

Neil shoves him away. He kneels and slowly, with a trembling hand he searches for a pulse. But feels nothing. 

He removes his hand and covers his face with both hands. No, this cannot be happening, Andrew cannot be dead. He hears steps approaching but he doesn’t even look to see who it is.

“Neil?” he hears Matt’s tentative voice.

“He’s gone.” And the moment he says it, tears start pouring down, and he doesn’t care. Andrew’s dead and it’s all his fault. He hears Matt calling for Dan but he doesn’t hear anything else after that. Later, he hears more voices coming closer but he doesn’t move, he hears crying and he can’t look and face Nicky and Aaron right now, he just can’t.

“Neil, look at me!” Dan commands, and Neil, slowly, moves his hands down to look at her, only because of her tone. She’s crouching in front of him, Andrew’s body in between them. Abby crouches next to her and removes her necklace and passes it to Neil.

Neil doesn’t move. Just stares at the necklace in confusion. “This contains water from the spirit oasis at the north pole,” she says. Neil blinks, trying to make sense of what she’s saying but he can’t really see how that could be relevant right now. 

“This water contains special properties,” Dan adds.

Abby moves the necklace closer to him. “I’m not sure it will work, but I want you to have it.”

Neil suddenly realizes what they’re suggesting. He takes the necklace and looks at them both for just a second.

Without a word he opens the lid and pulls the water out. Neil takes a deep breath and focuses. If there’s any chance of this working he’s going to channel as much power as he can. He enters the avatar state and bends the water to cover the area where the lightning hit Andrew in the middle of his back. The water begins to glow and so does Andrew and a second later the water disappears and Neil gets out of the avatar state.

He stares at Andrew’s body, waiting for something, anything to happen. Renee moves closer and instructs Abby to help her turn Andrew so that his back is lying on the ground. Neil only stares, trying to see any sign that he’s breathing but nothing changes. He can’t believe that it didn’t work. Neil is bringing his hands up again when Andrew takes a deep breath. And Neil stares at his chest, now slowly moving as he starts to breathe again.

Neil lets out the breath he’s been holding. He looks from Dan to Abby and to Renee and they start to smile at him. 

The others realize what just happened and start to cheer. Nicky comes crashing into him, thanking him for saving Andrew and Neil lets him, too stunned to move after what just happened. Eventually Erik pulls Nicky away and they all leave him with Andrew to make sure no soldier is leaving the island. Neil just sits there next to Andrew, until Wymack comes back with Blue and they move Andrew into her saddle. 

Soon after, they grab Abby and they fly back to Allison’s island, leaving the others on the island. They leave Abby and Andrew at Allison’t island and continue to fly further into the fire nation, to go speak to the firelord. Neil hates the idea of leaving Andrew, but he knows he has to go.

***

Neil and Wymack finally return to Allison’s island after several days. When they land, everyone comes to meet them at the beach.

Wymack hugs Dan. “The soldiers give you any trouble?”

“Not really.” Dan replies.

“Once they saw that Wesninski was dead, they just made camp and waited for orders,” Erik adds.

Neil tries to look past everyone and into the house, looking for any signs of Andrew.

Renee comes to stop at his side. “He’s been fully awake since yesterday, you should go see him.”

“Thanks, Renee,” Neil says and moves past everyone else and into the house.

Neil knocks on the door and when he faintly hears Andrew's voice saying "enter," Neil opens the door and can't help but stare. Andrew looks awful, which is expected of someone that technically died, but he’s alive and that’s all that matters.

Neil enters and closes the door and that’s when he notices the animal in the chair, near the window. “Is that--?”

“Yes," Andrew clears his throat. "When I woke up the cat was just there.”

“I guess you have to keep him now.”

Andrew hums. “Come here,” he says after a moment.

Neil moves closer, sitting at the edge of the bed. Andrew brings his arm up and grabs Neil’s neck without any force, Neil lets him pull him closer so that he’s resting his face on Andrew's shoulder.

“Thank you,” Andrew whispers in his ear and Neil has to move away and look him in the eye. Neil opens his mouth but Andrew puts a hand on his mouth to prevent him from speaking. “Don’t,” he says, “what you did out there was--” he stops, trying to figure out what to say. “I should be dead but instead I am here.”

“Good,” Neil pulls Andrew’s hand away from his mouth and doesn’t let go. “I don’t think I could live with myself if you died because of me,” Neil admits, now shifting to look at their hands.

“What happens now?”

“Now, the Moriyama’s and all their business and associates are going to be investigated and dealt with.”

“And what about you?”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. What are you going to do now?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure I haven’t mastered any of the elements yet. So I think I want to focus on that.”

Andrew rolls his eyes. “Of course you do.”

“And you haven’t told me how you can bend metal, I’ve never seen anyone do that before. Can you teach me?”

“I will teach you that if you teach me how to redirect lightning.”

“Deal.” 

Neil lays down in bed, feeling exhausted from everything that happened recently. But it's over now, the comet passed by and nothing changed. No one started a war. 

Neil turns to the side to face Andrew, and extends his arm to be in the middle of them as an invitation. It takes him a moment but Andrew moves his arm and intertwines their fingers. There’s a lot of things Neil wants to do in the future, but as for right now he’s happy just where he is, with his new found family and with Andrew by his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe this fic is done! I really enjoyed writing this one, it was really fun imagining the foxes in this universe and I really hope you enjoyed reading it :)
> 
> A special thank you to those of you that left comments on the previous chapters, it really helped me push through to finish this one 🤍
> 
> If you enjoyed this fic, please consider leaving a like or a comment, I'd really appreciate it!  
You can find me on tumblr [@wematch ](http://wematch.tumblr.com) <3


End file.
